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QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY. 

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A  GENERAL  FREIGHT  AND 
PASSENGER  POST 

A  PRACTICAL  SOLUTION  OF   THE 
RAILROAD   PROBLEM 


BY 


JAMES  LEWIS  COWLES 

Member  of  the  Connecticut  Bar.    Author  of  "  Distance  Not  a  Factor 

in   Railway  Traffic,"  The  Engineering  Magazine,  Sept.,  '93  ; 

li  Equality  of  Opportunity,    The  Arena,  Dec.,  '95,  etc. 


THIRD  EDITION,  REVISED  AND  ENLARGED 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

27  WEST  TWENTY-THIRD   STREET  24  BEDFORD   STREET,   STRAND 

Ube  Knickerbocker  press 
1902 


COPYRIGHT,  1896 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 


GENERAL 


ttbe  fmfcfeerbocfeer  prese,  flew 


I   DEDICATE  THIS  VOLUME  TO   THE  MEMORY   OF 

MY   SAINTED   WIFE 

"  LIGHT,    STRENGTH,    SWEETNESS  " 


96034 


PREFACE. 


THE  conclusions  presented  in  this  monograph, 
which  treats  of  the  circulation  of  persons  and  of 
property  through  the  arteries  and  veins  of  the  body 
politic,  rest  upon  the  following  fundamental  prin- 
ciples. 

First.  Railways  are  post-roads  and  are,  there- 
fore, subject,  both  as  to  state  and  interstate  com- 
merce, to  the  eighth  section  of  the  first  article  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Second.  Railway  trains  are  post-wagons  and  the 
Post-office  can  only  fulfil  the  object  of  its  being 
when  these  post-wagons  are  entirely  subject  to  its 
jurisdiction. 

Third.  The  transportation  of  persons  and  prop- 
erty is  as  legitimate  a  function  of  the  Post-office  as 
is  the  transportation  of  letters. 

(The  first  Act  passed  by  the  English  Parliament 
for  the  establishment  of  a  Postal  Department,  in 
the  American  Colonies,  the  Ninth  of  Queen  Anne, 
Chapter  Ten,  made  it  the  duty  of  American  post- 
masters to  provide  horses  and  guides  for  travellers, 
and  each  traveller  was  allowed  to  carry  merchan- 
dise up  to  eighty  pounds  in  weight  on  the  guide's 
horse  free.  For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  Post- 


VI  PREFACE. 

office  Packet  Service  of  England  was  the  only 
regular  vehicle  for  over-sea  travel,  and  this  service 
was  only  turned  over  to  private  hands  in  1830.) 

Fourth.  Railway  rates  should  be  determined  by 
the  cost  and  not  by  the  value  of  the  service  ren- 
dered. Any  rate  that  will  pay  the  cost  of  the 
shortest  haul  of  a  person  or  of  a  piece  of  property, 
within  a  railway  system,  will  pay  the  cost  of  the 
average  haul,  and  is  therefore  the  cost  of  service 
rate. 

Fifth.  The  whole  business  of  public  transpor- 
tation should  be  pooled  under  the  control  of  the 
Post-office,  and  the  rate  charged  for  the  shortest 
distance  for  any  particular  service  (the  cost  of  ser- 
vice rate)  should  be  adopted  as  the  uniform  stand- 
ard rate  for  that  class  of  service  for  all  distances, 
within  the  limits  of  the  Postal  system. 

This  is  simply  the  "  Penny  Post "  scheme  of  Sir 
Rowland  Hill,  extended  to  cover  the  general  busi- 
ness of  transportation,  and  it  presents,  I  believe,  a 
practical  solution  of  the  transportation  problem. 
Mr.  Hill  published  his  "  Penny  Post  "  pamphlet  in 
the  spring  of  1837.  In  January,  1840,  his  scheme 
was  English  law  and  was  in  course  of  application. 

What  took  three  years  in  the  era  1837-1840, 
ought  to  be  accomplished  now  in  as  many  months. 
It  is  surely  within  the  limits  of  possibility  that 
when  the  twentieth  century  opens,  the  scheme  set 
forth  in  this  book  may  be  American  law  and  may 
be  in  full  operation  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States. 


PREFACE.  vii 

"  Of  all  inventions,  the  alphabet  and  printing- 
press  excepted,  those  which  abridge  distance  have 
done  most  for  the  civilization  of  our  species. 
Every  improvement  in  the  means  of  locomotion 
benefits  mankind  morally  and  intellectually  as  well 
as  materially,  and  not  only  facilitates  the  inter- 
change of  the  various  productions  of  nature  and 
of  art,  but  tends  to  remove  national  and  provincial 
antipathies  and  to  bind  together  all  members  of  the 
human  family." 

;'  To  the  consumer,  the  ideally  perfect  condition 
of  things  would  be  a  tariff  for  the  conveyance  of 
merchandise  based  on  the  same  principle  as  the 
'  Penny  Post.'  Commodities  would  be  conveyed 
at  a  low  price,  and  producers,  over  an  immense 
area,  would  be  able  to  send  them  to  market.  To 
the  consumer  it  would  be  in  every  way  desirable 
that  all  disadvantages  of  distance  or  *  geographical 
disadvantages  '  should  disappear."  3 

"  As  a  question  of  purely  public  policy — that  is 
to  say  if  the  interests  of  the  (railway)  corporation 
were,  in  all  respects,  identical  with  the  interests  of 
the  community  as  a  whole — the  effect  of  distance 
on  operating  expenses  would  be  the  only  one  which 
there  would  be  need  to  consider,  and  its  effect  on 
revenue  (the  making  of  rates)  should  not  be  con- 
sidered at  all.  For,  since  the  real  service  rendered 


1  Macaulay. 

2  J.   Grierson,  General  Manager,   Great  Western  Railway 
of  England. 


VI 11  PREFACE. 

and  paid  for  is  the  transportation  of  persons  and 
property  from  one  terminus  to  another,  the  precise 
length  of  track  should  have  no  more  effect  upon 
the  price  paid  than  the  precise  amount  of  curva- 
ture or  rise  and  fall,  and  much  less  than  the  ruling 
grades.  All  should  be  considered  or  none  should 
be."  ' 

The  railways  serving  New  York  City  have  had  a 
uniform  rate  on  milk  for  the  last  forty  years.  In 
1887,  when  this  grouped  rate  covered  a  zone  of  220 
miles,  certain  Orange  County  farmers  complained 
to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  that  this 
system  deprived  them  of  their  natural  geographical 
advantages  and  demanded  an  adjustment  of  rates 
according  to  distance.  The  Commission,  however, 
decided  in  favor  of  the  existing  custom,  saying  : 
"  It  has  served  the  people  well.  It  tends  to  pro- 
mote consumption  and  to  stimulate  production.  It 
is  not  apparent  how  any  other  system  could  be  de- 
vised that  would  present  results  equally  useful  or 
more  just."  "  It  (the  Commission)  is  moreover 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  the  present  system 
is,  upon  the  whole,  the  best  system  that  could  be 
devised  for  the  general  good  of  all  engaged  in  the 
traffic." 

Eight  years  later  this  zone  of  uniform  milk  rate 
covered  distances  up  to  330  miles,  and  Commis- 
sioner George  R.  Blanchard,  of  the  Joint-Traffic 
Association,  testified,  before  the  Interstate  Com- 

1  Arthur  M.  Wellington,  Economic  Theory  of  Railway 
Location. 


PREFACE.  IX 

merce  Commission,  in  December,  1895,  tnat  tnere 
was  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  extended  to  a 
thousand  miles. 

But  Messrs.  Rogers,  Locke,  &  Milburn,  Coun- 
sel of  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna,  and  Western 
Railroad,  go  even  further  than  Mr.  Blanchard,  for 
they  say  : 

"  The  distance  (within  which  this  rate  should  be 
uniform)  need  only  be  limited  by  the  length  of  time 
required  to  make  it  with  the  train  and  meet  the 
wants  of  the  New  York  market,  with  milk  not 
affected  by  its  transportation." 

In  other  words,  if  milk  can  be  brought  from  San 
Francisco  to  New  York  in  good  condition,  then 
the  milk  rate  should  be  the  same  for  all  distances 
between  San  Francisco  and  New  York,  and  for 
this  reason,  "because  of  the  fact  that  the  expense  inci- 
dent to  the  mere  length  of  haul  is  so  small  in  compari- 
son with  the  other  necessary  charges  when  taken  in 
connection  with  the  special  service" 

"  The  cost  of  train  operation  is  not  appreciably 
more  whether  there  be  200  cans  in  a  car,  or  160 
cans  in  a  car,  or  ten  cans  in  a  car.  The  same 
crew,  the  same  messengers  and  organization,  and 
the  same  terminal  service  would  have  to  be  main- 
tained whether  the  can  be  carried  from  Bingham- 
ton  or  not,  or  from  Sussex  County  or  not,  and  the 
cost  of  the  delivery  of  the  can  at  the  Hoboken  terminal 
is  in  no  real  sense  dependent  upon  the  length  of  its 
haul!' 

See  Defendants'  Brief,  page  eleven,  in  the  case, 


X  PREFACE. 

"  The  Milk  Producers'  Association  versus  the  D. 
L.  and  W.  R.  R.  and  others." 

"  When  rates  are  based  upon  the  value  of  ser- 
vices rendered,  we  necessarily  have  discrimina- 
tion," and  yet,  "  It  is  the  universal  custom  among 
railroads,  the  world  over,  to  base  their  charges 
upon  the  value  of  the  service  rendered  and  not 
upon  the  cost — although  the  latter  would  seem  to 
be  the  safer  plan,  if  they  could  only  put  it  in 
force."  1 

The  cost  of  the  service  is  the  only  safe  basis  for 
the  determination  of  transportation  taxes,  and  the 
cost  of  service  rate,  levied,  collected,  and  distribu- 
ted by  officers  of  the  General  Government,  would 
necessarily  put  an  end  to  discriminations,  and  would 
furnish  an  ample  revenue  for  the  support  of  our 
entire  transportation  system. 

The  freight  cars  owned  and  leased  by  the  rail- 
roads of  the  United  States  (private  cars  are  left 
out  of  the  calculation),  making  but  two  paying 
hauls  a  week,  at  $7.00  a  car,  per  haul,  would  earn 
over  $877,000,000  a  year,  as  against  less  than  $700,- 
000,000  received  from  the  entire  freight  traffic  in 
1894,  and  less  than  $830,000,000  earned  in  1893. 
An  average  car-load  of  fourteen  tons,  at  fifty  cents 
a  ton,  would  bring  in  a  revenue  of  $7.00  a  car  per 
haul,  and  a  twelve-ton  load,  at  sixty  cents  a  ton, 
would  yield  $7.20  a  car  trip.1 

The   same   freight  locomotives   that   now   haul 

1  E.  Porter  Alexander,  Railway  Practice. 

2  Number  of  freight  cars  in  use  in  1894,  1,205,169.   /.  C.  C. 
Report,  1895. 


PREFACE.  XI 

average  train  loads  of  175  tons  could  haul  700 
tons,  and  the  same  passenger  locomotives  that  run 
hither  and  thither  with  average  loads  of  44  passen- 
gers, could  haul  from  500  to  700  passengers,  and 
the  difference  in  the  cost  of  the  business  would 
hardly  be  appreciable. 

Our  great  passenger  locomotives  are  able  to  haul 
ten-car  trains  on  a  time  schedule  of  forty  miles  an 
hour.  Such  a  train  would  furnish  seats  for  640 
persons.  The  average  trip  of  the  American  rail- 
way traveller  is  less  than  twenty-seven  miles,  but 
if  the  average  trip  on  a  transcontinental  ten-car 
express  were  200  miles,  the  train  would  empty 
itself  sixteen  times  in  a  journey  from  New  York  to 
San  Francisco,  and  would  thus  afford  seats  for 
10,000  persons,  each  taking  an  average  trip  of  200 
miles.  Even  if  the  train  were  but  half  filled,  its 
earnings  at  one  dollar  a  trip  would  be  over  $5000, 
over  $1.50  a  train-mile,  or  more  than  the  earnings 
of  the  average  train  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven, 
and  Hartford  Railroad  in  1894.' 

Is  it  not  altogether  reasonable  to  estimate  that — 
with  the  transportation  business  pooled  under 
the  control  of  the  Post-office — with  a  demur- 
rage limit  of  eight  hours,  the  demurrage  limit  of 
Holland  and  Belgium,  —  and  with  trains  sent 
from  the  starting-point  to  destination  over  the 
shortest  and  most  level  routes — a  uniform  prepaid 
rate  of  $1.00  a  ton  on  box-car  freight  and  forty 
cents  a  ton  on  products  carried  in  open  cars, 
would  furnish  an  ample  revenue  from  freight 

1  Distance  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  about  3300 
miles. 


Xli  PREFACE. 

traffic  ?  And  is  it  not  also  reasonable  to  believe 
that  $1.00  would  pay  the  full  cost  of  the  service 
for  the  average  trip,  by  ordinary  cars  on  the  fast- 
est express,  and  that  five  cents  a  trip  would  meet 
the  cost,  by  way  trains  ? 

The  possibilities  of  the  railroad  are  beyond 
imagination.  The  continuance  of  the  present 
system,  under  which  private  railway  managers  de- 
termine the  movements  of  persons  and  property 
according  to  the  value  of  the  service  rendered, 
will  certainly  secure  to  these  officials  the  entire 
control  both  of  the  business  of  the  country  and  of 
the  Government  and  will  result  in  an  absolute 
despotism. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  pooling  of  the  business, 
under  the  control  of  the  Post-office,  will  just  as 
surely  lead  to  the  ever-increasing  freedom  and  the 
ever-increasing  prosperity  of  the  whole  people. 

The  widening  of  the  zone  of  a  uniform  milk  rate, 
noted  on  page  viii,  continued  until  it  covered  dis- 
tances up  to  417  miles,  and  on  the  West  Shore  Road 
extended  from  the  New  Jersey  Terminal  nearly  to 
Buffalo.  This  movement,  in  the  line  of  the  equal- 
ization of  commercial  opportunities,  was  suddenly 
checked,  however,  by  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  who,  on  the  i3th  of  March,  1897, 
reversed  their  decision  in  the  Howell  Milk  Case  of 
September  24,  1888,  on  the  ground,  not  that  dis- 
tance made  any  difference  in  the  cost  of  the  service 
rendered  by  the  railroads  in  the  transportation  of 
a  can  or  case  of  milk,  but  that  the  system  of  a 


PREFACE.  xiii 

uniform  rate  deprived  the  near-by  producer  of  his 
NATURAL  RIGHT  (?)  to  the  monopoly  of  the  home 
market;  deprived  him  of  the  power,  which  he  pos- 
sessed before  the  invention  of  the  railroad,  to 
regulate  the  amount  of  milk  and  the  cost  of  milk 
consumed  by  his  neighbors. 

Under  the  leadership  of  Judge  Cooley,  the  Com- 
mission looked  upon  the  Royal-Railed  Highway  as 
a  matter  of  public  convenience,  of  public  security, 
and  of  public  prosperity;  it  had  some  regard  for 
the  consumer  and  the  far-away  producer  as  well  as 
for  the  near-by  producer;  its  chief  concern,  in 
short,  was  the  Common  Welfare,  and,  having  in 
view  the  Common  Welfare,  it  decided  that  the  sys- 
tem of  a  uniform  rate  was  the  best  possible  system 
for  all  engaged  in  the  traffic,  a  system  than  which 
none  other  could  be  equally  useful  or  more  just. 
From  that  decision  Commissioner  Morrison  dissen- 
ted. Nine  years  later,  under  Mr.  Morrison's  leader- 
ship, the  Commission  decides  that  this  same  system 
of  a  uniform  rate  is  unreasonable  and  unjust,  and, 
being  prejudicial  to  producers  and  shippers  nearer 
the  point  of  delivery,  it  is,  therefore,  in  violation  of 
sections  i  and  3  of  the  Act  to  Regulate  Commerce. 

There  was  ample  reason  for  reducing  the  uniform 
rate  on  milk  full  one  hundred  per  cent.  The  evi- 
dence showed  that  the  transport  tax  levied  by  the 
Milk  Contractor  Westcott  and  his  associates — 
Westcott  clears  over  $50,000  a  year  from  his  milk 
contract — upon  this  essential  of  life  was  full  three 
times  the  cost  of  its  transportation;  there  was  also 


XIV  PREFACE. 

good  reason  for  making  the  toll  on  milk  and  cream 
the  same,  for  there  is  certainly  no  difference  in  the 
cost  of  the  transport  of  a  forty-quart  can,  whether 
it  contains  milk  or  cream.  Such  a  procedure 
would  have  saved  to  the  whole  body  of  milk  con- 
sumers and  milk  producers  upwards  of  $1,300,000 
a  year,  or  more  than  one  third  of  a  cent  on  each  of 
the  320,000,000  quarts  of  milk  consumed  by  the 
men,  women,  and  little  children  of  the  Greater 
New  York  in  1895.  The  whole  galaxy  of  railway 
experts  had  testified  in  favor  of  the  uniform  rate, 
had  declared  that  the  cost  of  the  service  in  the 
transportation  of  a  can  of  milk  was  in  no  real  sense 
dependent  on  the  length  of  the  haul.  The  one 
reasonable  course  for  the  Commission,  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Government  of  the  whole  people, 
was  to  have  reduced  the  uniform  rate.  This  would 
have  tended  to  put  every  community  and  every  in- 
dividual interested  in  the  milk  traffic  on  even  stand- 
ing ground;  it  would  have  been  one  more  step  in 
the  slow  but  steady  movement  toward  equality  of 
commercial  conditions. 

The  one  thing,  however,  on  which  the  decision 
of  March  13,  1897,  lays  especial  stress  is  the  fact 
that  of  late  the  Commission  has,  uniformly,  con- 
demned the  fixing  of  railway  rates  with  a  view  of 
equalizing  commercial  conditions.  Their  final 
conclusion  is  ' '  That  each  community  is  ENTITLED 
to  the  benefits  arising  from  its  location  and  natural 
conditions,"  but  such  conclusions  carry  with  them 
a  very  dangerous  boomerang. 


PREFACE.  XV 

If  it  is  the  business  of  the  Interstate  Commission 
to  preserve  to  each  community  the  benefits  of  its 
location  and  natural  conditions,  then,  per  contra, 
its  power — the  power  of  the  National  Government 
— may  be  invoked  to  compel  each  unfortunately 
located  community,  each  community  that  happens 
to  be  located  inland,  on  one  line  of  railroad,  sub- 
ject to  the  will  of  one  railroad  manager,  to  compel 
such  unhappy  communities  to  submit  to  the  evils 
of  their  location  and  natural  conditions,  and  forth- 
with, the  Commission  becomes  a  pregnant  power, 
in  the  exaggeration  of  the  natural  inequalities  of 
commercial  conditions,  and  a  most  potent  instru- 
ment of  tyranny. 

This  very  thing  was  done  in  the  noted  Readville 
Case,  decided  by  the  Commission,  October  30, 
1890,  and  referred  to  on  page  107.  Readville  is 
an  inland  community  on  the  railroad  from  New 
York  to  Boston,  and  about  eight  miles  from  Bos- 
ton. Because  New  York  and  Boston  are  seaports, 
enjoying  low  rates  of  transport  by  sea,  they  are, 
therefore,  said  the  Commission,  entitled  to  equally 
low  rates  by  rail  over  the  land.  The  railways 
charged  eighteen  cents  a  hundred  on  flour,  New 
York  to  Readville ;  to  Boston  the  railway  rate  was 
but  nine  cents,  and  the  Commission  said  these 
rates  were  right  and  lawful.  In  effect,  the  Com- 
mission made  the  distance  from  New  York  to  Bos- 
ton the  same  as  that  from  Readville  to  Boston,  nine 
miles.  It  measures,  on  the  railway  map,  232  miles. 

The  result  of  this  Readville  decision  and  of  other 


XVI  PREFACE. 

similar  decisions  is  seen  in  the  report  of  the  New 
England  Road  of  October  28,  1897,  in  which  the 
railway  managers  say  boldly  that  they  are  to-day 
levying  three  times  as  heavy  transport  taxes  on 
their  pooled,  local  business  as  on  the  through  busi- 
ness over  which  their  power  is  not  yet  absolute — 
business  not  yet  pooled.  The  Commission  has 
made  itself  an  instrument  for  driving  the  people 
from  their  country  homes  to  city  dove-cotes;  an  in- 
strument for  the  impoverishment  and  enslavement 
of  the  common  people. 

The  reasoning  from  natural  conditions  adopted 
by  the  Commission,  carried  out  to  its  logical  con- 
clusion, would  banish  the  bicycle,  enjoin  the  use  of 
the  motor  carriage,  destroy  railways  and  tramways, 
abolish  even  our  common  highways  and  bridges 
and  remand  us  back  to  the  happy  natural  condition 
which  prevailed  throughout  the  Western  Continent 
when  the  Spaniards  landed  in  Mexico,  and  the  only 
means  of  land  transportation  was  by  human  burden 
bearer,  and  that  burden  bearer  usually  a  woman. 

I  take  direct  issue  with  the  Commission  both  as 
to  the  object  of  its  existence  and  the  object  of  the 
existence  of  the  railroad.  The  business  both  of 
the  one  and  of  the  other  is  to  equalize  commercial 
conditions,  to  secure  to  every  community  and  to 
every  individual  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States  the  nearest  possible  equality  of  transporta- 
tion service. 

The  Commission  has  done  valuable  work  in  many 
lines,  but  it  is  altogether  mistaken  in  its  theory  as 


PREFACE.  xvil 

to  the  determination  of  transport  taxes  and  as  to 
the  real  business  of  the  railway.  In  this  connec- 
tion it  is  interesting  to  note  that,  while  the  Com- 
mission condemns  the  adoption  of  one  wide  zone 
of  uniform  rates  and  of  equal  commercial  conditions 
for  the  whole  people,  it  admits  the  principle  of 
grouped  rates  and  of  equal  commercial  conditions 
within  limits,  determined  by  its  peculiar  methods 
of  guesswork  and  comparison. 

Behold  its  just  system  of  rates  on  milk  brought 
by  railway  to  New  York  : 

Group  i. — 40  miles  from  terminal. 
Can  Milk  (forty  quarts),   23  cents.     Can   Cream 
(forty  quarts),  41  cents. 

Group  2. — Next  sixty  miles  (40  to  100  miles). 
Can  Milk,  26  cents.     Can  Cream,  44  cents. 

Group  3. — Next  90  miles  (100  to  190  miles). 
Can  Milk,  29  cents.     Can  cream,  47  cents. 

Group  4. — 190  miles  to  417  miles  or  more. 
Can  Milk,  32  cents.     Can  cream,  50  cents. 

I  fail  to  see  anything  affecting  the  cost  of  the 
service  in  a  grouped  rate  of  forty  miles  that  will 
not  hold  good  for  any  distance.  What  reason  can 
there  be  for  adding  three  cents  for  the  sixty  miles 
of  group  2,  and  but  three  cents  for  the  ninety  miles 
of  group  3,  and  again  three  cents  more  for  the  two 
hundred  miles  or  so  of  group  4  ?  And  why  charge 
more  for  cream  than  for  milk  ?  What  business  have 


XV111  PREFACE. 

either  the  railway  managers  or  the  Commission  to 
pry  into  the  contents  of  the  can  ? 

The  Interstate  Report  of  1895  affords  the  follow- 
ing valuable  information  :  On  the  30th  of  June, 
1895,  there  were  30,000  railroad  trains  in  use  on 
the  Royal-Railed  Highways  of  the  United  States. 
The  average  train  represents  in  its  own  cost  and 
its  share  of  the  cost  of  tracks,  stations,  etc.,  about 
$365,000,  or  the  value  of  a  year's  labor  of  a  thou- 
sand Massachusetts  farmers.  (See  May  number 
of  Yale  Review,  1897,  page  64.)  The  cost  of  its 
daily  operation,  including  its  share  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  tracks,  etc.,  which  exist  for  its  use,  is  a 
little  over  sixty-six  dollars  a  day,  and  to  run  it  and 
keep  its  iron  road  in  good  condition,  requires  the 
constant  service  of  twenty-six  men.  The  total 
daily  charge  against  the  average  train,  including 
its  share  of  the  interest  on  the  cost  of  the  entire 
equipment  is  about  $100  a  day.  The  average 
freight  train  weighs  hardly  less  than  400  tons,  and 
the  average  passenger  train  hardly  less  than  160 
tons,  or  one  ton  per  passenger  seat.  Both  trains 
are  hauled  by  tireless  iron  horses  easily  capable  of 
making  300  miles  a  day. 

My  fourth  proposition,  page  6,  that  the  transport 
tax  levied  to  meet  the  cost  of  the  shortest  distance 
in  any  particular  class  of  railway  service  will  meet 
the  cost  for  any  distance  in  that  class  of  service, 
within  a  railway  system — the  long  haul  will  very  often 
cost  less  than  the  short  haul — this  proposition  does 
not  mean  that  five-cent  fares,  with  but  forty  persons 


PREFACE.  XIX 

or  less  occupying  the  160  seats  in  the  average 
$365,000  train  throughout  each  zone  of  25  miles, 
in  a  daily  course  of  100  miles,  would  meet  the  ex- 
penses chargeable  to  that  train;  neither  does  it 
mean  that  under  any  imaginable  condition,  every 
railroad  train  could  be  made  to  meet  its  expenses; 
it  does  mean  that,  with  five-cent  fares  in  ordinary 
railway  service,  the  average  train  would  require 
seats  for  at  least  200  passengers  whose  average 
trips  would  probably  be  not  over  ten  miles,  and  in 
that  case,  the  average  train  would  earn,  from  its 
five-cent  uniform  fares,  $100  a  day  as  against  $80  a 
day  from  its  average  fare  of  about  fifty  cents.  With 
daily  runs  of  300  miles — the  New  Britain  third-rail 
electrics  make  324  miles  a  day — the  five-cent  train 
would  make  average  daily  earnings  of  $300. 

The  cost  of  running  the  average  passenger  train 
on  the  Genesee  &  Wyoming  Valley  Railroad  is 
about  95  cents  a  mile,  but,  with  an  average  train- 
load  of  only  i-J  persons,  the  cost  to  the  road  per 
passenger  mile  is  67^  cents,  and  for  the  whole 
length  of  the  road — 5^  miles — the  cost  of  the  pas- 
senger trip  is  about  $3.70.  On  the  New  Haven 
Road  the  cost  per  train  mile  is  about  98  cents, 
but,  with  train-loads  of  about  75  passengers,  the 
cost  to  the  road,  per  passenger  mile,  is  only  about 
lySg-  cents.  It  actually  costs  the  New  Haven  Road 
less  to  haul  a  passenger  the  whole  length  of  its 
main  line,  New  York  to  Boston,  232  miles,  than  it 
costs  the  Genesee  &  Wyoming  Valley  Railroad  to 
haul  a  passenger  over  its  line  of  but  5-^  miles.  The 


XX  PREFACE. 

52-mile  passenger  trip  on  the  Genesee  road  costs 
that  road  more  than  seven  times  as  much  as  the 
cost  of  the  24.02  miles  trip  of  the  average  railway 
passenger  of  the  United  States.  A  study  of  pages 
404  to  473  of  the  Interstate  Report  of  1893  will  dis- 
close very  many  instances  of  this  character. 

In  September,  1896,  a  uniform  five-cent  fare 
was  adopted  on  the  Blue  Island  Line  of  the  Chicago 
&  Northern  Pacific  Road.  The  Line  is  twenty 
miles  in  length.  Under  the  old  mileage  plan  it  did 
not  meet  its  expenses.  A  year  later,  with  five- cent 
fares,  the  Line  was  making  money. 

There  is  more  money  in  a  five-cents  uniform  fare 
than  in  a  three-cents-a-mile  fare,  says  the  Manager, 
S.  R.  Ainslie. 

The  receipts  of  grain  at  New  York  by  canal,  up 
to  June  19,  1897,  thirty-five  days  after  the  opening 
of  the  Erie  Canal,  were  4,000,000  bushels;  by  rail, 
13,365,370  bushels.  Whether  this  grain  was  carried 
by  the  railways  at  1.8  mills  per  ton-mile,  the  re- 
ported and  not  disputed  rate  of  the  summer  of 
1895,  does  not  appear,  but  at  this  rate,  in  train- 
loads  of  1800  tons,  the  gross  earnings  per  train- 
mile  would  be  $3.24,  or  double  the  earnings  of  the 
average  freight  train  of  the  country. — {R.  R. 
Gazette,  July  2,  1897).  1.8  mills  per  ton-mile  is 
but  22\  cents  per  ton,  and  less  than  $7  per  car-load 
of  30  tons  for  the  average  haul  of  1895,  about  123 
miles. 

George  R.  Blanchard  sums  up  his  long  argument 
on  ' '  Railway  Pools  ' '  in  this  quotation  from  the 


PREFACE.  XXI 


Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  German  Empire 
prior  to  its  purchases  of  its  main  railway  lines: 
"  The  uniting  of  the  property,  of  the  traffic,  and 
of  the  management  of  the  inland  main  lines  under 
THE  STRONG  ARM  OF  THE  STATE,  are  the  only 
efficient  and  proper  means  to  solve  the  task." 

We  have  already  had  Mr.  Blan chard's  endorse- 
ment of  a  uniform  milk  rate. 

The  conclusion  is  irresistible.  The  Royal-Railed 
Highways  of  every  country  must  be  under  the 
management  of  the  state,  and  of  the  state  alone. 
So  long  as  these  national  highways  are  supported 
by  tolls,  those  tolls  must  be  low,  uniform,  stable, 
the  same  for  all  distances. 

J.  L.  C. 

NOTE. — The  figures  used  in  the  first  edition  of 
this  book  as  to  train-loads,  etc.,  and  still  retained 
in  some  places,  were  taken  from  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Report  of  1894. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PACK. 

I. THE    POST-OFFICE    SINCE    1839  .  .          I 

II. ABUSES      OF      THE      PRESENT      SYSTEM      OF 

RAILWAY    MANAGEMENT          .  .  .26 

III. DISTANCE    A     FALSE     BASIS    FOR    THE    DE 

TERMINATION     OF     RAILWAY    RATES      .       69 

IV. THE      COST-OF-SERVICE      PRINCIPLE       AND 

ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PUBLIC  TRANS- 
PORTATION, UNDER  THE  CONTROL  OF 
THE  POST-OFFICE  ....  IO5 

V. — THE    UNITED    RAILWAYS    OF    AMERICA    VS. 

THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA         .    156 

VI. PRUSSIAN  RAILWAY  ADMINISTRATION          .    263 

INDEX  29J 


xxiii 


A  GENERAL 
FREIGHT  AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    POST-OFFICE   SINCE    1839. 

NEARLY  sixty  years  have  passed  since  Rowland 
Hill  startled  the  people  of  England  with  his  pro- 
ject of  a  "  Penny  Post,"  proposing  at  one  sweep  to 
reduce  the  average  rate  of  inland  postage  from 
about  tenpence  to  a  penny,  and  to  carry  a  letter 
from  Land's  End  to  John  O'Groat's  at  the  same 
charge  as  from  London  to  the  nearest  village. 

The  scheme  involved  both  a  radical  reform  in 
rates  and  an  equally  radical  change  in  the  aims  of 
the  government.  At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  Post-office  was  a  part  of  the  public 
service,  being  run  on  the  cost  of  the  service  princi- 
ple. During  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, its  chief  end  was  taxation,  and  the  rates  were 
determined  on  the  modern  railway  principle  of 
exacting  as  nearly  as  possible  the  full  value  of  the 


2  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

service  rendered,  or  in  other  words  "  what  the 
traffic  will  bear." 

In  the  days  of  Charles  II.,  when  the  only  means 
of  transportation  were  on  foot  or  on  horse-back, 
the  postal  routes  of  England  were  divided  into  two 
great  groups,  with  a  uniform  rate  of  two  pence  up 
to  eighty  miles  from  London  and  three  pence  for 
greater  distances.  A  hundred  and  seventy-five 
years  later,  with  the  post-coach  traversing  the 
smooth  roads  of  Telford  and  McAdam,  and  with 
the  cost  of  distance  practically  annihilated,  the 
rates  were  three  or  four  times  higher  than  in  the 
olden  time,  and  were  carefully  determined  at  so 
much  a  mile. 

In  1695,  the  postage  from  London  to  Liverpool 
on  a  single  letter  was  three  pence  ;  in  1813,  it  was 
eleven  pence.  "  In  1695,  a  circuitous  post  would 
be  converted  into  a  direct  one,  even  though  the 
shorter  distance  carried  less  postage  ;  in  1813,  a 
direct  post  was  being  constantly  refused  on  the 
plea  that  a  loss  of  postage  would  result." 

The  following  rates  were  in  force  from  1812  to 
1839  :  four  pence  a  single  letter  up  to  fifteen  miles, 
five  pence  for  twenty  miles,  eight  pence  for  eighty 
miles,  etc.  For  "  double  and  treble  letters,"  the 
rates  were  two  and  three  times  higher  than  the 
single  rates,  and  for  "  ounce  letters,"  four  times 
higher. 

The  complications  in  postal  rates  were  almost 
as  bewildering  as  are  the  complications  in  freight 
rates  to-day.  There  was  hardly  a  town  in  the  king- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  3 

dom  where  accurate  information  could  be  obtained 
as  to  the  rate  on  a  letter  addressed  to  another 
town. 

The  high  charges  forbade  the  use  of  the  mails 
to  the  poor,  hindered  the  development  of  trade 
and  of  commerce,  and,  in  the  end,  greatly  injured 
the  postal  revenue.  In  1838,  the  net  receipts  were 
actually  less  than  in  1815,  although  in  the  mean- 
time the  population  had  increased  by  some  six 
million. 

The  postal  laws  of  England  were  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the  rest  of  that  system  of  class  legis- 
lation which,  as  Thorold  Rogers  says,  had  been  con- 
cocted for  the  purpose  of  cheating  the  workman  of 
his  wages,  of  tying  him  to  the  soil  and  of  degrading 
him  to  irremediable  poverty.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  privileged  classes  sent  their  letters  free.  Franks 
were  sometimes  sold  and  were  often  given  to  ser- 
vants in  lieu  of  wages. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Mr.  Hill 
brought  forward  his  apparently  wild  proposition. 
"  What !  "  said  the  tax-gatherers,  "  carry  a  letter  a 
hundred  miles  at  the  same  rate  as  for  one  mile  ? 
Mr.  Hill  is  mad  ;  the  idea  is  absurd  ;  it  is  impos- 
sible." But  the  tax-payers,  the  common  people, 
those  who  bore  the  burdens  of  life,  heard  the  re- 
former gladly.  The  project  was  hardly  made  pub- 
lic before  it  attracted  great  and  hearty  support. 
Petition  after  petition  was  presented  to  Parliament 
in  favor  of  the  scheme,  and,  in  less  than  three  years 
after  its  first  promulgation  it  was  carried  into  effect. 


4  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

"  Colony  after  colony,  and  state  after  state,  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  Old  England.  Rates  were 
continually  reduced  and  in  nearly  every  instance 
the  revenues,  at  the  reduced  rates,  were  greater 
than  before  the  reductions." 

If  for  a  time  the  English  Post-office  proved  an 
exception  to  the  rule,  the  fact  may  be  easily  ac- 
counted for.  Mr.  Hill's  opponents  were,  for  several 
years,  in  charge  of  his  scheme  and  they  desired  its 
failure.  But,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  the  potent 
influence  against  its  immediate  success  was  the 
railway.  Instead  of  carrying  the  mails  for  less 
than  the  stage  lines,  railway  managers  charged 
very  much  more.  They  first  drove  off  the  stages 
and  then  compelled  the  government  to  pay  two, 
three,  and  in  some  cases  four  times  as  much  as  the 
stages  had  charged  for  a  similar  service. 

Some  towns  were  long  without  ordinary  postal 
facilities,  owing  to  the  high  railway  cha-rges.  The 
extravagant  demands  of  the  London  and  South- 
western Railway  Company  for  several  years  de- 
prived the  town  of  Alton  of  the  advantages  of  a 
daily  mail.  In  not  a  few  instances,  the  postal 
authorities  were  obliged  to  abandon  the  railway 
and  go  back  to  the  post-wagon  for  the  conveyance 
of  the  mails.  In  one  case,  where  speed  was  not  a 
matter  of  importance,  Mr.  Hill  effected  a  saving  of 
$4000,  and  in  another  case  of  $10,000  annually, 
by  thus  reverting  from  the  locomotive  to  the  horse, 
for  the  carriage  of  mail  bags. 

The   following    quotation    from    Her   Majesty's 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  $ 

Mails,  by  William  Lewins,  is  of  great  interest  in 
this  connection  :  "  The  gain  to  the  Post-office," 
says  Mr.  Lewins,  "  through  railways  is  certainly 
enormous  ;  besides  the  advantage  of  increased 
speed,  they  make  it  possible  to  get  through  the 
sorting  and  the  carrying  of  the  mails  at  the  same 
time,  but  here  the  gain  ends  ;  and  the  cost  to  the 
public  of  the  service  really  done  is  heavy  beyond 
all  proportion.  The  cost  of  carrying  the  mails  by 
coaches  averaged  twopence  farthing  per  mile  ;  the 
average  cost  under  railways  (now  that  so  many 
companies  take  bags  by  all  trains)  for  1864,  averages 
sixpence  a  mile,  some  railways  charging  five  shil- 
lings a  mile  for  the  service  they  render.  The  cost 
of  running  a  train  may  be  reckoned,  in  most  cases, 
from  a  shilling  to  fifteen-pence  a  mile  ;  and  thus 
the  Post-office,  for  the  use  of  a  fraction  of  a  train, 
may  be  said  to  be  paying  at  the  ratio  of  from  fifty 
to  two  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  in  excess  of  the 
whole  cost  of  running." 

No  wonder  that  there  was  a  falling  off  in  the  net 
receipts  of  the  English  Post-office  at  the  opening 
of  the  railway  era.  The  wonder  is  that  the 
"  Penny-Post "  could  have  survived  such  exac- 
tions. 

But  the  taxes  imposed  on  our  National  Govern- 
ment, by  the  farmers  of  our  post-roads,  were  even 
more  exorbitant  than  those  levied  in  England. 
Under  the  Act  of  July  7,  1838,  the  lowest  compen- 
sation given  to  the  railroads,  for  the  transportation 
of  the  mails,  was  twenty-five  per  cent,  higher  than 


O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  highest  compensation  allowed  to  the  old  stage 
lines  for  a  similar  service,  and  this  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  cost  of  the  service  to  the  railroads 
was  hardly  a  fiftieth  part  the  cost  by  stage.  The  rates 
paid  to  the  American  roads  were,  in  general,  double 
the  English  rates,  and  the  American  Postmaster- 
General  had  no  control  of  the  running  of  trains, 
and  therefore  no  power  to  determine  when  the  mails 
should  be  delivered.  Here  are  some  of  the  figures 
given  by  Postmaster-General  Wycliffe,  in  1843:  New 
York  to  Paterson,  N.  J.,  seven  times  a  week  by  the 
old  stage  contracts,  $800  a  year  ;  by  rail,  six  times 
a  week,  $1385  ;  Buffalo  to  Niagara  Falls,  seven 
times  a  week,  in  each  case,  by  stage,  $572,  by  rail 
$1122  ;  Springfield,  Mass.,  to  Albany,  N.  Y.,  six 
times  a  week,  in  both  cases,  by  stage,  $4762,  by 
rail  $10,000  ; — and  the  railways  claimed  still  more. 
Postmaster-General  Cave  Johnson,  in  his  report 
of  1845,  says  :  "  Great  and  important  advantages 
are  enjoyed  by  citizens,  by  the  reduction  of  the 
price  of  transportation,  travel,  etc.,  by  the  railroads, 
but  they  have  universally  increased  the  price  of 
transporting  the  mails  and,  in  some  instances,  to 
the  extent  of  200  or  300  per  cent,  above  the  former 
prices.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  satisfactory 
reason  for  the  difference  in  the  price  of  transport- 
ing a  thousand  pounds  of  newspapers  and  letters, 
and  a  thousand  pounds  of  merchandise,  in  the 
same  car,  between  the  same  places  and  at  the  same 
time  ;  yet  more  than  ten  times  probably  is  de- 
manded in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other." 


AND  PASSENGER   POST.  7 

The  Post-office  to-day  pays  fifty  per  cent,  more 
for  the  transportation  of  a  ton  of  mail-bags  from 
New  York  to  Buffalo  by  railway,  than  it  used  to 
cost  to  send  ordinary  freight  the  same  distance  by 
boat  and  by  wagon,  in  the  days  before  the  opening 
of  the  Erie  Canal.  Books,  carpets,  cutlery,  hats 
and  caps,  boots  and  shoes,  gloves  and  laces,  are 
carried  from  Liverpool,  via  steamer  to  New  Orleans 
and  thence  by  railway  to  San  Francisco,  for  $1.07 
a  hundred  pounds.  Our  express  companies  carry 
all  sorts  of  parcels,  from  the  domicile  in  New  York 
to  the  station,  thence  by  rail  a  thousand  miles  to 
Chicago,  and  deliver  at  the  domicile  in  that  city, 
at  a  rate  of  $3.00  a  hundred  pounds,  but  the  rail- 
ways tax  the  Government  eight  cents  a  pound, 
$8.00  a  hundred,  $160.00  a  ton,  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  its  mail-bags  for  an  average  haul  of  not  over 
442  miles. 

For  the  first  ten  years  after  the  railroads  began 
to  carry  the  mails  there  was  a  continual  deficit  in 
the  revenues  of  the  post-office,  and  it  was  only  met 
by  the  increase  of  the  business  which  followed  the 
decrease  of  the  postage  and  the  wide  grouping  of 
rates,  in  1845.  The  deficits  in  the  business  of  the 
Post-office  in  recent  years  are  easily  accounted  for 
by  the  burdensome  taxes  levied  by  our  railway 
kings.  These  taxes  remain,  in  most  cases,  at  the 
same  rate  to-day  as  in  1878.  In  some  instances 
the  receipts  from  the  Post-office  probably  more 
than  pay  the  entire  cost  of  the  trains  that  carry  the 
mails. 


8  A    GENERAL  FK  EIGHT 

But  notwithstanding  the  failure  of  the  people's 
representatives  to  compel  the  managers  of  our 
"  post-roads  "  to  give  to  the  public  reasonable 
postal  transportation,  and  notwithstanding  the 
waste  of  postal  revenues  in  bounties  given  to  such 
concerns  as  the  Standard  Oil  Company's  Anglo- 
American  Steamship  Line,  the  extension  of  the 
sphere  of  the  Post-office  has  gone  steadily,  though 
slowly,  forward. 

The  Act  of  Congress  of  1845  made  the  letter  rate 
five  cents  a  half  ounce  within  distances  of  three 
hundred  miles,  and  ten  cents  for  longer  distances. 

In  1849,  Congressman  Palfrey,  of  Massachusetts, 
advocated  the  abolition  of  the  franking  privilege, 
a  prepaid,  uniform  two-cent  letter  rate  for  all  dis- 
tances, and  free  city  delivery.  He  believed  that 
the  two-cent  rate  would  speedily  send  the  letters 
up  to  200,000,000  (the  number  of  paying-letters 
had  increased  under  the  Act  of  1845  from  24,267,- 
552  in  1843,  to  58,069,075  in  1849),  and  make  all 
recourse  to  the  general  Treasury  unnecessary.  The 
expenses  of  the  department  would  be  somewhat 
increased,  by  such  a  multiplication  of  letters,  but 
not  materially.  "  //  is  the  keeping  up  of  the  system 
that  costs  so  much  money,  and  not  the  amount  of  the 
business.  The  increased  cost  for  transportation  would 
be  but  trifling."  The  institution  of  free  delivery 
would  save  to  the  city  of  New  York  alone  $900  a 
day,  or  nearly  a  third  of  a  million  dollars  a  year. 
But  Mr.  Palfrey  was  far  ahead  of  his  time.  The 
next  step  was  not  taken  until  1851,  when  books 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  9 

were  first  introduced  into  the  mails  and  the  rates 
on  letters  were  made  three  cents  a  half  ounce  for 
distances  within  three  thousand  miles,  and  six  cents 
for  greater  distances.  In  1855,  prepayment  by 
stamps  was  made  compulsory.  It  was  not  until 
1863  that  a  uniform  three-cent  letter  rate  was 
adopted,  and  a  system  of  free  delivery  was  inau- 
gurated in  our  large  cities.  It  was  only  in  1873 
that  the  franking  privilege  was  abolished,  to  be 
revived  in  a  modified  form  later. 

The  country  waited  for  thirty-four  years  (until 
1883),  before  it  secured  a  Congress  bold  enough 
and  far-sighted  enough  to  complete  the  scheme  of 
Mr.  Palfrey  and  give  to  the  people  a  uniform  two- 
cent  letter  rate.  In  1885,  the  weight  of  letters  was 
increased  to  one  ounce. 

The  English  Post-office,  as  organized  by  James 
I.,  in  1603,  provided  not  only  for  the  handling  of 
the  correspondence  of  his  subjects,  but  also  for  the 
conveyance  of  their  persons  and  property  up  to 
thirty  pounds  in  weight,  and  this  inland  traveller's 
post  was  not  abandoned  until  1780,  after  an  exist- 
ence of  177  years.  The  Penny-Post,  established 
by  Wm.  Docwra,  in  1683,  carried  parcels  up  to 
one  pound  anywhere  within  a  ten-mile  circuit  of 
London,  and  as  late  as  1711  this  service  extended 
to  certain  towns  as  far  away  as  twenty  miles  from 
the  metropolis. 

The  Act  of  Parliament,  Ninth  of  Queen  Anne, 
chapter  10,  establishing  a  postal  department  in  the 
American  Colonies,  made  it  the  especial  duty  of 


10  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

the  Postmasters  to  furnish  horses  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  travellers  at  a  rate  of  three  pence  a  mile 
for  a  horse  and  four  pence  a  mile  for  a  guide, 
parcels  up  to  eighty  pounds  to  be  carried  on  the 
guide's  horse  free  of  charge. 

We  also  note  among  the  curious  articles  franked 
to  foreign  parts,  by  the  old  English  packet  service, 
the  following  : 

"  Fifteen  hounds  going  to  the  King  of  the 
Romans  with  a  free  pass." 

"  Two  maid-servants  going  as  laundresses  to  my 
lord  Ambassador  Methuen." 

"  Dr.  Crichton,  carrying  with  him  a  cow  and 
divers  other  accessories." 

Previous  to  1689,  the  Harwich  Post-office  packets 
running  to  Brill,  in  Holland,  were  entirely  sup- 
ported by  the  receipts  from  freight  and  from  pas- 
sengers, and  in  the  year  1822  the  Dublin-Holyhead 
line  carried  over  16,000  passengers.  In  1827,  the 
steam  flotilla  of  the  English  postal  department 
comprised  nineteen  vessels  of  an  aggregate  of 
4000  tons  burden,  and  it  was  only  in  1830  that  the 
regular  over-sea  mail  service  of  England  was 
turned  over  to  private  hands. 

These  facts  are  of  great  interest,  as  showing  the 
original  functions  of  the  post-office,  and  as  indicat- 
ing its  possibilities,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  wonderful  public  service  were  ever 
thoroughly  appreciated,  and  we  know  that  for 
many  years  previous  to  1860,  both  in  England  and 
in  America,  it  was  closely  confined  to  the  convey- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  II 

ance  of  letters  and  newspapers.  Up  to  that  time 
the  interests  of  the  private  common  carrier  seem 
nearly  always  to  have  prevailed  against  the  interests 
of  the  public. 

The  Act  of  Queen  Anne  was  partially  revived 
by  our  National  Government  in  1861,  when  a 
few  articles  of  merchandise,  maps,  photographic 
materials,  scions,  seeds,  etc.,  were  admitted  to  the 
mails  in  very  small  parcels. 

In  1864,  this  list  was  somewhat  extended,  and 
finally,  in  1879,  it  was  made  to  cover  almost  any- 
thing that  could  be  carried  in  a  mail-bag  without 
injury  to  the  rest  of  the  contents,  the  rate  being 
one  cent  an  ounce,  in  parcels  up  to  four  pounds. 
In  1885,  it  was  further  provided  that  publishers 
and  news-agents  might  send  their  merchandise, 
paper-covered  books,  and  newspapers,  through  the 
mails  to  their  customers,  anywhere  in  the  United 
States,  at  one  cent  a  pound,  and  in  any  quantity 
from  a  pound  to  a  car-load  ;  and  to-day  the  con- 
veyance of  this  kind  of  merchandise  makes  up  two 
thirds  of  the  business  of  the  Post-office.  The  aggre- 
gate weight  of  second-class  matter  in  1895  was  312,- 
000,000  pounds  (156,000  tons),  being  an  increase 
over  1894  of  13,000,000  pounds  or  6,500  tons.  It 
is  said  that  a  certain  publisher  in  Maine  has  sent 
out  through  the  mails  1600  tons  of  books  in  a  sin- 
gle year,  and  a  number  of  publishers,  at  some 
seasons  of  the  year,  ship  two  tons  a  day.  The 
city  of  New  York  deposits  in  its  Post-office  30,000 
sacks  of  this  merchandise  every  month.  These 


12  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

figures  give  us  some  idea  of  the  use  that  the  public 
will  make  of  the  mails  when  the  Post-office  is  once 
opened  to  the  general  service. 

Postal  cars,  moveable  post-offices,  have  been 
hired  of  the  railroads  since  1863,  but  as  will  be 
shown  later,  on  terms  that  would  have  bankrupted 
any  ordinary  business.  This  year,  1863,  is  also 
notable  for  the  gathering  of  the  first  Congress  of 
Nations  for  the  formation  of  an  International 
Postal  Union,  and  it  is  very  gratifying  to  know 
that  the  prime  mover  in  this  grand  scheme  was  an 
American,  the  Hon.  John  Kasson. 

But  although  there  has  been  a  considerable  ex- 
tension of  the  postal  service  in  this  country  in  the 
last  half  century,  the  Old  World  has  gone  far 
beyond  us.  England  has  inaugurated  a  system  of 
Postal  Savings'  Banks  that  have  proved  of  wonder- 
ful utility  ;  she  has  also  brought  the  telegraph 
within  the  sphere  of  the  Post-office,  with  the  result 
that  English  telegrams  cost  but  half  as  much  as 
ours,  and  there  is  twice  as  much  use  of  telegraphic 
facilities  in  England  as  in  this  country. 

But  perhaps  the  greatest  step,  in  advance  that 
the  English  Post-office  has  taken  is  in  the  exten- 
sion of  its  service  to  the  conveyance  of  parcels. 

A  national  parcels  post  formed  part  of  the  com- 
prehensive plan  of  Sir  Rowland  Hill,  but  it  was 
killed  by  the  railroads,  and  their  opposition  was 
only  overcome  when  Postmaster-General  Fawcett, 
in  1883,  agreed  to  give  them  55  per  cent,  of  all  the 
receipts  from  railway-carried  parcels.  This  tax 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  13 

has  proved  so  burdensome  that,  in  some  cases,  the 
Government  has  abandoned  the  railway  for  the 
post-wagon,  for  the  conveyance  of  parcels  as  well 
as  of  letters,  but  notwithstanding  this  drawback, 
the  experiment  has  proved  a  wonderful  success. 
The  rates  run  from  threepence  a  pound  up  to 
eighteen-pence  for  an  eleven  pound  parcel,  not  ex- 
ceeding three  and  a  half  feet  in  length  and  six  feet, 
combined  length  and  girth.  Twopence  extra  in- 
sures a  parcel  up  to  $25,  and  sixpence  up  to  $125. 
In  1889,  nearly  40,000,000  parcels  were  sent  through 
the  English  Post-office,  at  a  cost  to  the  people  of 
a  little  over  ten  cents  a  parcel.  And  so  well  satis- 
fied are  the  railway  managers  of  England  with  the 
project  that,  Sir  George  Findley,  then  manager  of 
the  London  and  Northwestern  Railway,  in  a  speech 
made  in  February,  1890,  paid  to  it  the  following 
tribute  : 

"  The  parcels  post,  compiared  with  its  elder 
brother,  the  letter  post,  is  yet  in  its  infancy,  but  it 
has,  at  a  bound,  become  one  of  the  great  insti- 
tutions of  the  country  and  has  fully  justified  its 
inception." 

That  the  English  people  thoroughly  appreciate 
the  advantage  of  the  freer  trade  and  the  greater 
equality  of  service  secured  to  themselves,  by  this 
nationalization  of  the  express  business,  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that,  in  the  year  1894  the  number  of 
parcels  transported  in  the  mails,  was  over  56,600,000, 
an  increase  of  over  40  per  cent,  in  five  years. 


14  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

The  conveyance  of  parcels  by  the  Post-office  has 
been  long  common,  in  Europe,  and  at  rates  usually 
lower  than  the  English  rates.  In  Germany,  for 
parcels  up  to  eleven  pounds,  the  charge  is  six  and 
a  quarter  cents  up  to  ten  miles,  and  for  greater 
distances  within  the  limits  of  the  empire,  twelve 
and  a  half  cents.  In  Belgium,  the  uniform  rate 
for  similar  parcels  is  sixteen  cents  by  express 
trains,  and  ten  cents  by  slow  trains,  in  each  case 
delivered  at  the  domicil. 

Under  the  International  Parcels  Post  Convention, 
formed  at  Paris  in  1880, and  now  including,  probably, 
half  the  civilized  world,  outside  the  United  States, 
the  cost  of  carrying  an  eleven  pound  parcel  across 
each  of  the  countries  of  the  convention,'  is  but  ten 
cents,  and  the  entire  charge  for  the  conveyance  of 
such  a  parcel  from  any  post-office  in  Germany  to 
any  office  in  Egypt,  is  only  forty-five  cents  ;  ten 
cents  across  each  of  the  countries,  Germany,  Swit- 
zerland and  Italy  ;  ten  cents  across  the  Mediterra- 
nean, and  five  cents  to  the  place  of  delivery  in 
Egypt.  Sixty-five  cents  carries  an  eleven  pound 
parcel  from  France  or  Germany  to  nearly  every 
post-office  in  the  greater  part  of  South  America. 

In  1891,  the  people  of  Germany  sent  $27,000,000 
worth  of  merchandise  to  their  customers  and  friends 
through  the  International  Parcel  Post ;  Austria 
sent  over  $55,000,000,  and  little  Switzerland  nearly 
$20,000,000,  and  they  received  nearly  as  much  in 
return.  It  was  an  American  who  brought  the 
International  Postal  Union  into  being,  but  the  de- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  15 

velopment  of  this  greatest  of  "  associations  for  the 
preservation  of  international  peace  and  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  international  prosperity,"  has  been 
left  to  other  hands,  and  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  still  refuses  to  our  people  the  grand 
advantages  which  this  Parcel  Post  Convention 
holds  out  to  them.  Our  authorities  have,  however, 
concluded  Parcel  Post  Conventions  with  a  few  of 
the  West  India  Islands,  and  with  certain  South 
American  countries,  Mexico  and  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  and  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  eleven  pound 
parcels  of  merchandise  may  be  exchanged  between 
certain  of  our  great  cities  and  these  far  away  for- 
eigners, through  the  Post-office,  at  a  charge  of  but 
twelve  cents  a  pound,  while  the  cost  of  a  corre- 
sponding service  at  home  is  sixteen  cents  a  pound. 
In  1893,  the  English  Post-office  handled  2,785,- 
000,000  pieces  of  mail  matter,  at  a  profit  of  over 
$14,000,000.  Our  Government,  handling  in  the 
same  time  about  5,000,000,000  pieces,  made  a  loss 
of  $5,177,171,  a  loss  increased  in  1895  to  nearly 
$10,000,000.  This  deficit  is  easily  accounted  for, 
however,  as  has  been  shown,  by  our  exorbitant  rail- 
way taxes  and  by  our  unnecessary  bounties  to 
subsidized  steamers. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  story  of  the  extension  of 
the  sphere  of  the  Post-office,  inaugurated  by  the 
wonderful  reform  of  Sir  Rowland  Hill,  in  1839. 
The  part  played  by  the  different  governments  in 
this  business,  has  been  that  of  directors  of  their 
respective  public  business  corporations,  either 


1 6  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

building  or  purchasing  the  different  agencies  of 
public  transportation  and  communication,  or  mak- 
ing contracts  with  the  various  private  agencies  for 
the  use  of  their  equipment,  and  providing  the 
necessary  revenues  by  levying  for  each  particular 
service,  a  tax,  at  once  low  and  uniform  for  all  per- 
sons, regardless  of  differences  of  distance  and  of 
the  volume  of  the  traffic,  and,  in  so  far  as  this 
theory  of  governmental  duty  has  been  applied,  it 
has  everywhere  proved  a  decided  success. 

As  to  the  future,  in  this  country,  Postmaster- 
General  Wanamaker  declared  in  his  report  of  1891, 
that  one-cent  letter  postage,  three-cent  telephones, 
and  ten  cent  telegrams  were  all  near  possibili- 
ties under  an  enlightened  and  compact  postal  sys- 
tem using  the  newest  telegraphic  inventions  ; 
and  in  his  last  report  he  said,  "  one-cent  letter 
postage  to  every  place  in  the  world  is  what  this 
nation  is  surely  coming  to."  Mr.  Wanamaker  also 
favored  a  consolidation  of  the  third  and  fourth 
classes  of  postal  matter,  with  a  uniform  rate  of  one 
cent  for  two  ounces,  or  eight  cents  a  pound,  saying 
that  the  high  rate  now  charged  for  merchandise 
prevented  the  proper  use  of  the  post-office  by  the 
people,  and  that  if  the  number  of  parcels  were 
doubled  or  trebled,  the  additional  burden  upon  the 
postal  service  resulting  from  the  increase  would  be 
very  slight. 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  a  very  sensible 
classification  of  postal  matter  would  be  as  fol- 
lows : 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  I/ 

First  class  :  letters,  at  a  rate  of  one  cent  an 
ounce. 

Second  class  :  all  free  matter. 

Third  class  :  merchandise,  with  a  uniform  rate 
of  one  cent  a  pound,  in  parcels  from  one  pound  to 
sixty  pounds,  or  from  the  dimensions  of  a  pint  to  a 
bushel,  transported  by  passenger  trains  ;  and  in 
parcels  of  from  twenty-eight  pounds  to  two  hundred 
pounds,  or  from  the  dimensions  of  a  half  bushel 
to  a  barrel,  at  a  half  cent  a  pound,  by  fast  freight 
trains.1 

The  objection  that  such  rates  would  enlarge  the 
already  great  deficit  in  our  postal  revenues,  I  have 
already  answered.  Our  railways  are  post-roads  ; 
they  can  carry  and  they  should  be  made  to  carry 
merchandise  for  the  Post-office  as  cheaply  as  they 
now  do  it  for  the  express  companies.  If  this  were 
done,  the  Post-office  would  undoubtedly  pay  its 
expenses  even  at  these  rates,  and  it  would  soon  be 
possible  to  lower  them.  But  it  is  objected  that 
although  this  business  may  be  done  more  cheaply 
by  the  Post-office,  it  will  not  be  done  with  the  same 
despatch  as  by  private  express  companies.  Ex- 
perience, however,  tells  a  different  story. 

The  London  Spectator  is  my  authority  for  the 
statement  that  until  the  agitation  commenced  in 
England  for  a  government  parcels  post,  the  rail- 
roads seemed  to  despise  the  business.  The  air 
they  assumed  was  that  of  a  person  conferring  a 
favor,  who  will  do  the  business  offered  when  there 
is  no  more  important  business  on  hand.  Such  a 
1  See  scheme  suggested  in  Chapter  V. 


1 8  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

matter  as  a  fixed  and  low  tariff  and  promptness  of 
despatch  and  delivery  were  quite  beneath  their 
notice.  All  this  was  changed  by  Mr.  Fawcett's 
determination  to  give  the  public  a  parcels  post,  and 
long  before  the  parcels  post  became  a  reality. 
The  only  agency  that  could  subject  the  railway 
companies  to  effectual  competition  was  an  institu- 
tion having  already  in  existence  a  machinery  for 
collection  and  distribution  to  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  result  was  seen  in  the  better  work  of 
the  companies.  But  in  a  direct  trial  as  to  despatch, 
the  Post-office  beat  the  railroads.  Mr.  Shaw  Le- 
Fevre,  when  Postmaster-General,  made  the  experi- 
ment of  sending  off  a  hundred  pair  of  parcels  to 
places  selected  haphazard,  one  of  each  pair,  by  the 
Post-office,  and  one  by  the  railroads.  In  seventy- 
one  of  the  hundred  cases,  the  parcel  was  delivered 
quicker  by  the  post  than  by  the  railroad,  the  ad- 
vantage in  time  being,  on  the  average,  five  hours. 
The  Post-office,  moreover,  in  every  case,  delivered 
its  parcel  at  the  address,  while,  in  many  cases,  the 
railroad  only  brought  it  to  the  nearest  station,  a 
custom  which  prevails  to-day,  to  a  considerable 
extent  with  our  American  express  companies, 
which  are  in  reality,  little  more  than  departments 
of  the  railroads. 

A  friend  of  mine  had  a  parcel  sent  from  Titus- 
ville,  Penn.,  to  Richmond,  Va.,  a  short  time  ago,  by 
express.  The  time  occupied  in  transit,  was  seventy- 
two  hours,  just  twice  that  taken  by  the  Post-office 
for  the  carriage  and  delivery  of  a  letter. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  19 

At  my  old  home,  in  Farmington,  Conn.,  an 
extra  charge  of  ten  cents  is  made  for  the  carriage 
of  parcels  between  the  railway  station  and  the 
village,  and  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  learn  be- 
forehand what  is  to  be  the  expressage  on  an  out- 
going parcel.  Express  rates  are  liable  to  be 
changed  any  day,  and  as  many  times  a  day  as  suits 
the  whim  of  the  general  manager.  There  are  no 
public  rate  sheets.  This  further  evil  also  follows  : 
namely,  that  persons  of  influence  are  frequently 
able  to  secure  free  expressage,  and  to  throw  the 
whole  burden  of  the  business  upon  their  unfortu- 
nate neighbors.  These  evils  -are  characteristic  of 
the  private  management  of  this  class  of  public 
business,  and  they  are  evils  that  can  be  met  only 
by  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  the  Government. 
As  to  the  economic  advantage  of  the  proposed 
reform,  the  following  testimony  from  one  of  the 
largest  manufacturing  concerns  of  Ohio,  is  of  great 
value.  Writing  to  me,  in  February,  1895,  the  sec- 
retary of  the  company  says  that  the  savings  accru- 
ing from  a  parcels  post  system  would  be  immense, 
and  that  it  would  be  a  saving  not  only  in  express 
charges  but  in  time.  "  I  know  of  instances  where 
lawsuits  have  resulted  from  delays  of  shipments, 
and  of  instances  where  customers  have  failed  to 
meet  their  obligations  to  manufacturers,  because 
of  the  failure  to  receive  in  due  time  the  repairs 
necessary  to  operate  their  machinery.  We  have 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  customers  who  live 
anywhere  from  five  to  forty  miles  from  railways, 


2O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

and  who  lose  anywhere  from  three  days  to  a  week 
on  every  order  for  repairs  that  they  place,  and  the 
loss  of  time  figured  up  and  saved  to  our  customers 
would  be  quite  an  object,  and  will  run  into  thou- 
sands of  dollars  when  you  embrace  them  all. 
"  Here  is  room  for  reform." 

But  why  confine  the  business  of  the  Post-office 
to  the  mere  handling  of  letters,  newspapers,  and 
small  parcels  of  merchandise  ?  Why  cannot  we 
have  "A  General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post,"  as 
well  as  a  "  Letter  and  Parcels  Post  ?  "  Is  there  any 
essential  difference  between  the  transportation  of 
ordinary  postal  matter  and  of  other  freight 
and  of  passengers  ?  Certainly  not.  The  rail- 
way is  the  common  servant  of  all.  Every  piece 
of  postal  matter,  every  ton  of  freight,  and  every 
passenger  is  received,  carried  to  its  destina- 
tion, and  delivered  by  the  same  transportation 
agencies.  True,  a  letter  or  a  newspaper  is  less  in 
bulk  and  in  weight  than  a  man  or  a  ton  of  freight, 
but  it  costs  less  to  haul  a  ton  of  freight  a  thousand 
miles  in  the  great  railway  trains  of  to-day,  than  it 
used  to  cost  to  carry  a  letter  half  that  distance 
with  the  old  time  transportation  facilities.  The 
modern  Post-office,  moreover,  deals  with  tons 
instead  of  ounces,  and  its  machinery  can  be 
adapted  to  handle  tons  of  other  freight  as  easily 
as  it  now  handles  tons  of  mail  bags.  According 
to  Postmaster-General  Wilson's  estimates,  the 
weight  of  the  United  States  mails  in  1895  was 
over  234,000  tons.  On  some  roads  the  mails 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  21 

weigh  a  tenth  as  much  as  the  passengers.  The 
receipts  of  the  railways  of  the  country  for  the 
transportation  of  the  mails  in  1895  were  more  than 
ten  per  cent,  of  the  receipts  from  the  passengers. 

The  grand  principles  on  which  the  postal  systems 
of  the  world  are  based  are  as  follows  : 

First.  When  once  a  postal  system  is  established, 
the  machinery  must  run,  and  it  makes  no  practical 
difference  in  the  cost  of  the  business, whether  a  letter, 
or  a  newspaper,  or  a  parcel  is  carried  one  mile  or  a 
thousand.  Once  the  mail  has  started  on  its  trip,  it 
is  impossible  to  figure  the  difference  in  cost 
whether  a  piece  of  postal  matter  is  left  at  the  first 
office  at  which  the  mail  stops,  or  goes  to  the  farthest 
office  in  the  system.  At  every  office  a  part  of  the 
mail  will  be  left  and  new  matter  taken  on  ;  one 
piece  in  a  hundred  perhaps  will  go  the  whole  route 
and  there  will  always  be  room  for  it.  The  average 
post  will  be  short.  If  one  could  send  a  letter 
round  the  world  for  nothing,  the  bulk  of  the  postal 
business  would  still  consist  of  the  exchange  of 
friendly  and  commercial  messages  between  near 
neighbors.  Distance,  in  short,  costs  practically 
nothing  in  the  business  of  the  Post-office  and 
therefore  postal  rates  should  be  the  same  for  all 
distances. 

This  was  the  great  discovery  of  Mr.  Hill,  and 
the  method  by  which  he  arrived  at  his  conclusions, 
is  as  follows  :  Out  of  an  annual  expenditure  of 
,£700,000  in  the  business  of  the  Post-office,  the 
total  amount  found  to  be  chargeable  to  distance 


22  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

was  but  ^£144,000  (about  one  fifth).  Dividing  this 
by  the  number  of  paying  letters,  and  allowing  for 
the  greater  weight  of  newspapers,  it  left  the  cost 
for  the  average  conveyance  of  each  letter  less  than 
one  tenth  of  a  penny,  an  amount  so  small  that  any 
attempt  to  divide  it,  according  to  distance  would 
be  manifestly  absured. 

Further  investigation  proved,  moreover,  that  the 
cost  of  conveyance  per  item  of  postal  matter  was 
not  infrequently  less  for  a  long  distance  than  for  a 
short  distance.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  the  mail,  on 
the  longest  and  most  important  route  in  the  king- 
dom, that  from  London  to  Edinburgh,  some  four 
hundred  miles  in  length,  the  cost  of  the  conveyance 
of  the  whole  mail,  per  trip  was  five  pounds,  and 
this  amount,  divided  according  to  the  weight  of  the 
paying  letters  and  newspapers,  gave  one  sixth  of  a 
penny  as  the  absolute  cost  for  the  conveyance  of 
a  newspaper  of  an  average  weight  of  one  and  one 
half  ounces,  and  one  thirty-sixth  of  a  penny  for  that 
of  a  quarter-ounce  letter. 

These  sums  being  the  full  cost  for  the  whole 
distance,  Mr.  Hill  assumed  that  the  same  rating 
would  do  for  any  place  on  the  road.  It  was 
admitted  on  all  sides,  that  the  chief  labor  was  ex- 
pended in  making  up,  opening,  and  delivering  the 
mails  ;  therefore,  the  fact  whether  it  was  carried 
one  mile  or  one  hundred,  made  comparatively  little 
difference  in  the  expenditure  of  the  Post-office. 
The  expense  and  trouble  being  much  the  same, 
perhaps  even  less  at  Edinburgh  than  at  some  in- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  23 

termediate  points,  why  should  the  charges  be  so 
different  ?  But  the  case  could  be  made  still 
stronger.  The  mail  for  Louth,  containing,  as  it  did, 
comparatively  few  letters,  cost  the  postal  authori- 
ties, as  the  simple  expense  of  transit,  five  farthings 
per  letter. 

Thus,  an  Edinburgh  letter,  costing  an  infini- 
tesimal part  of  a  farthing,  paid  a  postage  of  one 
shilling  and  three  halfpence,  while  a  letter  for 
Louth,  costing  the  Post-office  fifty  times  as  much, 
paid  but  ten  pence.  Mr.  Hill's  opponents  were 
therefore  compelled  either  to  accept  his  proposition, 
or  to  stand  as  the  defenders  of  the  existing  system 
under  which  the  highest  price  was  often  paid  for 
the  cheapest  business. 

"  At  first  sight,  it  looked  extravagant  that  per- 
sons residing  at  Penzance  or  the  Giant's  Causeway, 
at  Waterford  or  Wick,  should  pay  the  same  postage 
on  their  letters.  In  practical  experience,  however, 
it  was  the  nearest  possible  approximation  to 
perfect  justice.  The  intrinsic  value  of  the  con- 
veyance of  a  letter  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
the  cost  of  such  conveyance.  The  value  of  the 
service  rendered  by  the  Post-office  in  any  particular 
case,  is  exactly  equal  to  the  time,  trouble,  and  expense 
of  the  despatch  of  a  private  messenger  on  that  par- 
ticular errand,  and  may  be  fairly  measured  by 
distance,  but  it  is  the  glory  of  the  modern  Post- 
office  that,  by  the  use  of  its  vast  machinery,  this 
burdensome  expense  is  practically  eliminated  and 
all  the  resulting  benefits  are  equally  divided  among 


24  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  whole  people.  On  the  other  hand,  the  curse  of 
our  present  system  of  railway  rates,  based  on 
distance,  consists  in  this,  that  it  enables  our  railway 
managers  to  guage  their  charges  so  as  to  take  to 
themselves  nearly  all  the  difference  between  the 
cost  of  conveyance  by  human  burden-bearer  or  by 
ox-team  and  by  railway.  They  are  thus  rapidly 
absorbing  the  wealth  of  the  entire  country. 

Second.  The  postal  rate  is  a  tax,  a  tax  on  com- 
munication, a  tax  on  the  nervous  system  of  the 
body  politic,  and  it  is  a  tax  especially  burdensome 
upon  the  poor.  The  postal  rate,  therefore,  must 
be  as  low  as  possible,  and  it  must  be  the  same  for 
all. 

Third.  The  only  power  that  can  be  safely  en- 
trusted with  the  right  to  levy  postal  taxes,  is  the 
General  Government. 

The  experience  of  more  than  half  a  century  has 
triumphantly  demonstrated  the  truth  of  these  prop- 
ositions as  applied  to  postal  freight,  and  what  is 
true  of  the  postal  business  is  equally  true  of  ordi- 
nary railway  traffic.  The  post-office  and  the  rail- 
road are  indeed  inseparably  connected,  and  the 
common  interest  demands  that  both  shall  be  under 
the  same  control,  and  shall  be  managed  on  the 
same  principles.  Not  until  the  different  govern- 
ments of  the  world  have  applied  the  postal  prin- 
ciple to  telegraph  and  telephone  rates  on  the  one 
hand,  and  to  railway  rates  on  the  other,  under  the 
control  of  the  Post-office,  will  that  great  institution 
be  able  to  perform  its  whole  duty,  as  the  grand 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2$ 

centre   of   the   nation's   circulating    and    nervous 
system. 

The  office  of  the  letter,  the  newspaper,  the  tele- 
graph, and  the  telephone  is  to  give  mankind  in- 
formation as  to  where  and  how  they  may  best 
satisfy  their  wants  and  dispose  of  their  wares. 
The  business  of  the  different  agencies  of  public 
transportation  (and  the  railway  is  the  chief  of 
these  agencies),  is  to  provide  the  public  with  the 
cheapest,  the  quickest,  and  the  best  possible  ma- 
chinery by  which  they  can  avail  themselves  of  this 
information.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  one  has  an 
adequate  idea  of  the  evils  that  are  certain  to  fol- 
low the  continuance  of  the  present  system  of  pri- 
vate management  of  these  great  public  works,  with 
its  franking  privileges  for  the  favored  few,  and  its 
unjust  and  unstable  taxation  of  the  many,  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  of  the  blessings  that  are  equally 
certain  to  accrue  to  the  people  at  large  from  the 
proposed  widening  of  the  sphere  of  the  Post-office, 
with  its  system  of  equal,  stable,  just,  and  uniform 
taxation  for  all. 


26  A   GENEKAL  WEIGHT 


CHAPTER  II. 

ABUSES     OF     THE     PRESENT     SYSTEM     OF     RAILWAY 
MANAGEMENT. 

THE  railways  are  the  circulating  system  of  the 
country  ;  the  tracks  are  the  arteries  and  veins  ;  the 
trains  are  the  life-bearing  current  ;  the  freight  and 
the  passengers  in  the  trains  are  the  life  itself.  It 
is  no  more  possible  to  discover  the  difference  in 
the  cost  of  the  conveyance  of  freight  and  of  pas- 
sengers between  the  different  stations  of  a  railway 
system,  than  it  is  to  measure  the  difference  in  the 
efforts  of  the  human  heart,  whether  the  life  essence 
be  transported  from  one  valve  of  the  heart  to  the 
other,  or  from  the  life  centre  to  the  finger  tips.  In 
the  one  case,  as  in  the  other,  the  office  of  the  cir- 
culating system  is  to  relieve  congestion  here  and 
starvation  there,  to  the  end  that  there  may  be  a 
perfect  body,  complete  in  every  part,  and  each 
part  dependent  upon  and  subservient  to  every 
other.  In  either  case,  the  cost  of  transportation  is 
a  matter  of  life  and  death.  Check  the  flow  of  the 
life  blood  to  the  hand  and  it  withers  and  dries  up  ; 
cut  off  an  individual  or  a  town  from  the  national 
system  of  circulation,  or  what  is  practically  the 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2J 

same  thing,  discriminate  against  it  in  railway  rates, 
and  it  dies. 

If  Mr.  Depew,  President  of  the  New  York  Cen- 
tral Railroad,  is  to  be  believed,  thousands  of 
towns  in  this  country  are  thus  dying  to-day,  be- 
cause of  the  tariff  discriminations  of  our  railway 
kings,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  individuals  are 
being  deprived  of  opportunities  to  labor  and  to 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  labor  by  the  same  arbitrary 
power. 

"  It  is  a  matter  of  time  only"  (Mr.  Depew  is  re- 
ported to  have  said  before  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Committee  of  Congress,  in  the  winter  of  1893), 
"  when  the  small  dealer  who  is  compelled  to  pay 
the  regular  tariff  will  go  to  the  wall.  If  this  law 
[the  Interstate  Commerce  Act,  which  he  claims  to 
be  the  cause  of  rate  cutting]  continues  in  force 
five  years  longer,  there  will  not  be  an  independent 
business  man  in  any  of  the  large  cities  of  the 
United  States.  It  [this  cutting  of  rates]  is  trans- 
ferring the  great  business  of  the  country  from  its 
old  position  into  the  hands  of  a  few  great  dealers, 
and  it  is  growing  at  a  speed  beyond  anything  we 
know,  forming  great  trusts  and  combinations"  Note 
that  Mr.  Depew  attributes  the  growth  of  the  trusts 
to  railway  discriminations,  and  how  it  is  done  is 
admirably  told  by  Albert  J.  Stickney  in  his  Rail- 
road Problem.  "  A  railway  manager  finds  it  more 
convenient  to  deal  with  one  man  or  one  corpora- 
tion, than  to  deal  with  a  number  of  individuals  ; 
the  manager  therefore  commences  operations  by 


28  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

giving  to  some  enterprising  party  an  advantage  over 
his  neighbor  in  rates.  The  favored  individual,  of 
course,  soon  obtains  a  complete  monopoly  in  his 
particular  trade  ;  it  may  be  in  the  product  of  mines 
or  of  oil  wells,  of  farms  or  of  factories.  After  a 
time,  the  grantees  of  these  monopolies  become 
rich,  and  instead  of  receiving  rebates  as  a  favor, 
they  become  masters  of  the  railways  and,  by  play- 
ing one  against  another,  they  practically  dictate  the 
rates  they  pay.  Thus  it  has  happened  that  in  some 
kinds  of  business,  the  oil  business,  for  instance,  a. 
single  concern,  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  after 
having  received  from  the  railroads  ten  million  dol- 
lars in  the  short  space  of  eighteen  months,  has 
gained  an  absolute  monopoly." 

In  other  classes  of  business,  like  that  of  dressed 
beef  and  the  handling  of  grain,  the  monopoly  is  in 
the  hands  of  three  or  four  individuals.  "  They 
parcel  the  United  States  out  among  themselves," 
says  Mr.  Depew,  "  and  they  send  their  products 
[the  product  in  which  the  railroads  first  made  them 
privileged  dealers],  by  any  railway  they  see  fit. 
To-day  they  send  it  over  the  New  York  Central  ; 
to-morrow  they  arbitrarily  change  it  to  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad.  One  of  these  privileged  dealers, 
for  instance,  is  able  to  send  five  or  ten  cars  of  first- 
class  goods  per  day  from  Chicago  to  New  York. 
The  regular  rate  is  seventy-five  cents  a  hundred, 
but  in  order  to  get  his  trade,  the  railways  offer 
him  a  rate  of  thirty-five  or  forty  cents."  Taking 
a  carload  of  first-class  freight  at  ten  tons,  this 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2Q 

great  firm,  at  a  rate  of  thirty-five  cents,  receives  an 
advantage  over  its  competitors  of  $80  per  car,  from 
$400  to  $800  a  day,  and  from  $125,200  to  $250,400 
for  the  working  year  of  313  days,  according  as  it 
ships  five  or  ten  cars  a  day.  In  November,  1891, 
the  Federal  grand  jury  returned  an  indictment 
against  Swift  &  Co.,  dressed  beef  shippers  of 
Chicago,  for  having  received  $30,000  in  rebates 
in  the  previous  six  months  from  the  Nickel  Plate 
Road  alone.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  in  a  short  time 
the  competitors  of  such  a  firm  are  wiped  out  ? 
And,"  says  Mr.  Depew,  "  this  is  going  on  at  every 
terminal  of  this  country  and  by  all  lines,  so  that 
you  find  business  is  being  concentrated  at  the  ter- 
minals. It  is  being  concentrated  at  Chicago,  and 
concentrated  at  New  York,  concentrated  at  Pitts- 
burgh, at  Philadelphia,  and  at  Boston,  and  at  other 
terminals  all  over  the  country,  while  small  places 
are  being  wiped  out  ;  their  industries  are  being 
taken  from  them. 

"  A  bill  is  passed  to  prevent  trusts  ;  manufac- 
turers get  round  it  by  forming  a  big  corporation. 
The  managers  discover  that,  owing  to  discrimina- 
tions in  freight  rates  in  favor  of  terminal  points, 
great  savings  are  to  be  made  by  removing  the 
plants  in  the  smaller  towns  and  villages  to  these 
terminals,  so  they  take  away  the  business  from  the 
small  town  and  close  up  the  factory.  The  work- 
men follow  the  business  ;  the  town  goes  to  ruin." 
"  And  yet,"  says  Mr.  Depew,  "  the  growth  of  this 
country  is  dependent  upon  the  building  up  of  the 


3O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

smaller  places.  The  best  political  and  economic 
results  are  against  the  concentration  of  business  at 
a  few  places  and  in  a  few  hands." 

And  then  the  great  railway  manager  goes  on  to 
speak  of  the  general  impression  that  railways  seek 
to  encourage  these  combinations  because  they  can 
thus  deal  with  fewer  people,  and  he  says  this  is  a 
false  impression.  Unfortunately  for  Mr.  Depew, 
however,  this  impression  is  absolutely  correct. 
The  investigations  of  the  Hepburn  Committee  of 
the  New  York  Legislature,  prove  that  on  the  very 
road  of  which  Mr.  Depew  is  now  President  and  of 
which  he  was  then  the  leading  counsel,  this  system 
of  building  up  the  rich  at  the  expense  of  the  poor 
has  been  a  prevailing  practice.  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Van- 
derbilt  swore  that,  as  a  rule,  all  large  shippers  who 
asked  for  them,  got  special  rates,  and  among  those 
whose  wealth  he  had  thus  helped  to  build  up,  he 
mentioned  the  name  of  Mr.  A.  T.  Stewart,  the 
great  dry-goods  merchant  of  New  York  City. 
Drawbacks  and  rebates,  he  said,  were  very  large. 
The  evidence  showed  that,  in  some  towns,  one 
man  paid  three  times  the  rates  given  to  his 
neighbor. 

In  these  special  rates,  distance  was  altogether 
lost  sight  of,  one  rate  of  twenty  cents  being  made 
to  Little  Falls,  217  miles  from  New  York,  while  that 
to  Syracuse,  291  miles  away,  was  but  ten  cents,  and 
the  rate  to  Black-Rock,  a  distance  of  455  miles, 
was  exactly  the  same  as  to  Little  Falls.  The  only 
rule  for  the  determination  of  the  transportation 


AND   PASSENGER  POST.  31 

taxes  levied  on  the  New  York  Central  Railroad. 


was  the  will  of  the  President  and  that  of  his  traffic 
manager.  They  changed  the  rates  at  some  seasons 
of  the  year  three  or  four  times  a  day,  said  Mr. 
Vanderbilt. 

This  perversion  of  the  use  of  this  greatest  of  pub- 
lic works  continues,  and  must  continue  as  long  as 
this  business  of  managing  our  post-roads  is  farmed 
out  to  private  individuals  and  to  private  corpora- 
tions. Nor  can  this  evil  condition  of  things  be  al- 
together remedied  by  the  collection  of  transporta- 
tion taxes  by  State  officials,  as  long  as  the  value  of 
the  service  rendered  by  the  railways,  rather  than 
the  cost  of  the  service,  continues  to  be  the  basis  on 
which  these  taxes  are  determined. 

The  growth  of  railway  terminals  and  the  concen- 
tration of  business  in  the  hands  of  a  few  great  con- 
cerns at  or  beyond  those  terminals,  at  the  expense 
of  the  intervening  country  (so  much  bewailed  by 
Mr.  Depew,  and  at  the  same  time  so  much  favored 
by  his  influence),  is  no  new  thing  in  railway  history, 
nor  is  it  confined  to  this  country.  It  seems,  in- 
deed, to  have  been  specially  provided  for  in  one  of 
the  earliest  charters  ever  granted  to  a  railroad  cor- 
poration, namely,  that  given  to  the  Stockton  & 
Darlington  road,  of  England. 

The  provisions  of  this  charter  show  that  the  rail- 
way projectors  of  that  early  age  well  knew  that  dis- 
tance was  hardly  worth  considering  as  a  factor  in 
the  cost  of  railway  service,  while  they  fully  realized 
the  tremendous  power  which  it  would  have  as  a  tax 


32  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

factor  in  enabling  them  not  only  to  exact  the  full 
value  of  that  service  from  those  living  along  their 
lines,  but  also  to  take  from  them  well-nigh  the  full 
value  of  their  property  and  of  their  earnings.  The 
Stockton  &  Darlington  charter  provided  that  its 
projectors  might  levy  a  tax  of  eight  cents  a  mile 
per  ton  on  coal  used  along  their  lines,  while  coal 
for  export, — that  is  to  say  for  use  at  terminals  and 
at  places  beyond  the  terminals,  was  to  be  taxed 
but  one  cent  per  ton,  per  mile.  And  this  system, 
inaugurated  on  the  Stockton  &  Darlington  Rail- 
road, seems  to  have  been  copied  everywhere  and 
by  all  railway  managers,  whether  at  the  head  of 
state  or  private  roads.  The  prevailing  custom 
seems  to  have  been  to  exact  as  nearly  as  possible 
the  full  value  of  the  service  from  local  traffic,  while 
the  through  business  has  always  been  done  as 
nearly  as  possible  on  the  basis  of  the  cost  of  the 
service,  and  notably  in  disregard  of  distance. 

Terminals  have  had  lower  rates  than  intermedi- 
ate stations,  and  the  terminals,  in  their  turn,  have 
been  subjected  to  higher  rates  than  were  levied  on 
the  same  classes  of  freight  shipped  beyond  the  ter- 
minals. Thus,  flour  shipped  from  Minneapolis  for 
consumption  in  Chicago,  or  Milwaukee,  though  pay- 
ing less  than  from  Minneapolis  to  intermediate  sta- 
tions, sometimes  pays  more,  by  a  third,  than  flour 
for  shipment  beyond  those  places. 

It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  coal  shipped  from 
Pennsylvania  mines  for  use  in  Philadelphia,  pays  a 
much  higher  transportation  tax  to  Pennsylvania 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  33 

railroads  than  coal  carried  to  that  port  for  ship- 
ment beyond  Philadelphia.  Corn  shipped  from 
Minneapolis  to  Boston  has  paid  $44  per  carload  of 
twenty  tons,  more  than  if  taken  on  board  ship  at 
Boston  for  foreign  consumption.1  Nothing  indeed  is 
more  common  than  such  railway  discriminations  in 
favor  of  foreigners  at  the  expense  of  citizens  in  the 
transportation  of  exports,  nor  are  instances  want- 
ing of  similar  discriminations  in  the  transporta- 
tion of  imports.  In  1893,  Representative  Ikert,  of 
Ohio,  testifying  before  the  Ways  and  Means  Com- 
mittee of  Congress,  said  :  "  The  German  manufac- 
turer can  ship  his  goods  from  Germany  to  distribut- 
ing points  in  the  interior  of  the  United  States  at  a 
less  cost  than  can  the  domestic  manufacturer  in 
New  Jersey  or  Ohio."  At  one  time  the  rate  on  tin 
plate  from  Liverpool,  via  Philadelphia  and  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  to  Chicago,  was  twenty-four 
cents  a  hundred,  while  the  rate  from  Philadelphia 
to  Chicago,  on  the  same  article,  over  the  same  road, 
was  twenty-eight  cents  a  hundred. 

The  record  in  the  Texas  and  Pacific  case,  lately 
tried  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  shows  that  the  rate  per  hundred  pounds 
charged  for  the  transportation,  on  through  bills  of 
lading,  of  books,  buttons,  carpets,  clothing,  and 
hosiery,  from  Liverpool  and  London,  via  New 
Orleans,  over  the  Texas  and  Pacific  and  Southern 
Pacific  railway  systems  to  San  Francisco,  is  $1.07. 
On  the  same  kind  of  domestic  articles  carried,  it 
may  be  in  the  same  train,  the  transportation  tax 

1  Interstate  Report,  1892,  p.  284. 


34  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

over  the  same  railroads  is  $2.88  from  New  Orleans 
to  San  Francisco. 

On  foreign  boots  and  shoes,  cashmeres,  con- 
fectionery, cutlery,  gloves,  hats  and  caps,  laces  and 
linens,  the  same  blanket  rate,  $1.07  a  hundred 
pounds,  is  levied  for  transportation  from  these 
English  ports  to  San  Francisco,  while  upon  similar 
American  goods  shipped  from  New  Orleans  to  the 
same  destination,  the  railroad  tax  is  $3.70  a  hun- 
dred. A  more  absurd  system  of  taxation  than  this 
could  hardly  be  imagined,  and  yet  the  majority  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  (Justices  Harlan 
and  Brown  and  Chief-Justice  Fuller  dissenting, 
however,)  has  decided  that  it  is  both  just  and  law- 
ful, and  that  American  railway  managers  may  with 
perfect  impunity  continue  to  tax  Americans  three 
or  four  times  as  much  as  they  tax  foreigners  for  a 
similar  service.  And,  according  to  Mr.  Grierson, 
General  Manager  of  the  Great  Western  Railway  of 
England,  this  sort  of  discriminating  "  protection  " 
of  foreign  producers  and  of  foreign  consumers 
against  native  producers  and  native  consumers, 
exists  in  every  country  where  railroads  have  been 
developed.  The  export  rate  on  baled  cotton  goods 
from  Manchester  to  Hull  is  ijs.  6^/.,  while  the  local 
rate  is  31^.  &d.  From  Manchester  to  London  the 
export  rate  is  25,?.,  while  the  local  rate  is  405.  8d. 

American  beef,  on  the  other  hand,  is  carried 
from  Liverpool  to  London  for  25^.  ($6.25)  per 
ton,  while  the  rate  from  Wolverhampton  to 
London  (hardly  two  thirds  the  distance)  on  Eng- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  35 

lish  beef,  is  45^.  ($11.25)  Per  ton-  The  state  roads 
of  Germany  ship  coal  from  German  mines  to  Ham- 
burg for  foreign  consumption,  for  $1.25  a  ton  less 
than  if  it  is  to  be  used  by  Germans  living  in  Ham- 
burg. "  The  German-Dutch  rates,"  says  Mr.  Grier- 
son,  "  are  invariably  lower  than  the  rates  to  inland 
towns  lying  between  the  forwarding  station  and  the 
port." 

Even  Belgium  levies  a  much  heavier  transporta- 
tion tax  on  coal  brought  from  the  interior  for  the 
use  of  her  own  citizens  living  at  Antwerp  than  if  it 
is  to  be  forwarded  to  strangers. 

According  to  the  Evening  Post  of  New  York,  of 
February  20,  1896,  the  New  York  roads  were  then 
carrying  Minneapolis  manufactured  flour  from 
'  Buffalo  to  New  York  City  for  ten  cents  a  hundred 
pounds,  while  they  charged  New  York  State  millers 
eighteen  cents  for  the  same  service.  Everything, 
indeed,  in  relation  to  the  exchange  of  kindly  ser- 
vices between  individuals  and  between  nations 
seems  to  be  at  sixes  and  sevens.  On  the  one  hand 
we  have  the  various  governments  of  the  world 
(that  of  England  being  almost  the  only  exception) 
levying  taxes  on  the  transportation  of  imports 
across  their  frontiers  for  the  "  protection  of  the 
home  market,"  and,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have 
private  railway  corporations  and  the  managers  of 
State  roads  making  discriminations  in  transporta- 
tion taxes  within  national  frontiers  which  not  only 
tend  to  nullify  the  effect  of  the  custom's  tariffs, 
but,  in  many  cases,  actually  favor  the  foreigner  at 


36  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  expense  of  the  citizen.  Of  the  two,  railway 
tariffs  have  vastly  more  influence  over  life  and  over 
business  than  have  custom's  tariffs. 

Especially  is  this  true  of  the  United  States.  "  In 
America,"  says  the  English  writer  Acvvorth,  "  the 
railway  rate  is  a  matter  of  life  and  death.  In 
America,  rates  vary  from  day  to  day  as  wildly  as 
the  price  of  fish  at  Billingsgate.  An  oriental 
despot,  a  Baber,  or  an  Aurungzebe  did  not  make 
and  unmake  cities  with  more  absolute  and  irre- 
sistible power  than  did  an  American  railway 
king." 

"  We  are  told  that  the  American  railways  have 
ruined  the  English  farmer  ;  people  forget  that 
they  have  ruined  the  American  farmer  also." 

"  This  power,"  says  Mr.  Stickney,  "  like  a  govern- 
ment, has  authority  to  make  tariffs  and  to  enforce 
their  collection.  It  claims  a  right  which  no  civil- 
ized government  claims,  and  no  sovereign  has 
dared  to  exercise  for  centuries,  of  rebating  a  por- 
tion of  its  tariff,  and  thus  discriminating  between 
its  subjects  in  the  collection  of  its  revenues.  It  is 
safe  to  say  that  if  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  should  enact  a  law  which  established  on  any 
commodity  one  impost  duty  for  the  city  of  New 
York  and  a  different  duty  for  other  cities,  or  one 
duty  for  one  firm  and  another  duty  for  another 
firm,  no  matter  how  slight  the  difference,  the 
people  would  resort  to  arms,  if  need  be,  rather 
than  submit."  (See  A.  B.  Stickney's  Railway 
Problem,  page  31.) 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  37 

"  These  railway  kings,"  says  Mr.  Bryce,  "  have 
power,  more  power — that  is,  more  opportunity  to 
make  their  will  prevail,  than  perhaps  any  one  in 
political  life,  except  the  President  or  the  Speaker, 
who  after  all  hold  theirs  only  for  four  years  and  two 
years,  while  the  railroad  monarch  holds  his  for  life. 
When  the  master  of  one  of  the  great  Western  lines 
travels  toward  the  Pacific  in  his  palace  car,  his 
journey  is  like  a  royal  progress.  Governors  of 
states  and  territories  bow  before  him  ;  legislatures 
receive  him  in  solemn  session  ;  cities  and  towns 
seek  to  propitiate  him,  for  has  he  not  the  means  of 
making  or  marring  a  city's  fortunes  ? "  (Bryce's 
American  Commonwealths,  vol.  ii.,  page  653.) 

In  an  article,  in  the  Times  of  Hartford,  Conn., 
of  August  26,  1893,  discussing  the  then  proposed 
consolidation  of  the  Boston  &  Maine  and  the 
New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  Railroad 
systems,  we  find  the  following  :  "  When  this  is 
accomplished,  you  will  see  a  corporation  with 
$300,000,000  of  capital  and  it  will  be  the  biggest 
railroad  combination  in  the  country.  We  shall 
have  to  go  to  Germany,  where  all  the  railways  are 
in  the  hands  of  the  Government,  to  find  anything 
to  compare  with  the  New  England  Railroad  system 
as  it  will  be  five  years  hence.  What  then  will  the 
office  of  Governor  in  any  New  England  State  be 
worth,  in  comparison  with  that  of  President  or 
General  Manager  of  this  vast  railway  system  ?  A 
United  States  Senatorship  will  be  a  poor  prize  in 
comparison  with  that  of  Director  of  the  New  Eng- 


38  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

land  Railway  system.  No  doubt  the  salary  of  the 
man  at  the  head  of  the  organization  will  be  equal 
to  that  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
$50,000  a  year." 

Less  than  three  years  have  passed  and  this  pre- 
diction is  almost  more  than  fulfilled.  If  not  con- 
solidated in  law  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  these  two  great  corporations  are  consolidated 
in  fact,  and  that  the  government  of  the  Consoli- 
dated Railroad,  long  practically  absolute  in  Con- 
necticut has  now  extended  its  (chartered  ?)  power 
of  unlimited  taxation  over  all  New  England.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Railroad  Gazette  of  March  20,  1896, 
the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hartford  Railroad 
now  owns  all  Southern  New  England,  with  its  fast 
growing  cities  as  in  fee  simple.  It  has  not  only 
absorbed  our  principal  lines  of  land  transportation  ; 
it  has  also  obtained  nearly  complete  control  of 
almost  every  important  wharf  in  our  chief  New 
England  harbors  and  of  almost  every  competing 
steamboat  line  that  plies  along  our  coast.  It  has 
already  seized  more  than  one  of  the  trolley  lines 
which  were  built  to  secure  to  local  travel  a  reason- 
able service,  at  reasonable  rates,  and  a  decree  has 
gone  forth  from  the  Railroad  Capital,  in  the  city 
of  New  Haven,  that  not  another  electric  tramway 
shall  ever  be  laid  down  on  any  of  the  highways 
which  the  people  of  Connecticut  have  built  and 
which  the  tracks  of  this  road  parallel.  There  is  to 
be  no  avenue  of  escape  from  the  burdensome  taxes 
which  this  corporation  sees  fit  to  levy  upon  its  sub- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  39 

jects.  Recent  events  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
even  the  church  is  not  to  be  free  from  its  encroach- 
ments. 

Henceforth  the  presiding  council  of  this  Impe- 
rial Railroad  Government  are  to  regulate  all  the 
conditions  of  life  in  New  England.  The  wages  of 
New  England  labor,  the  profits  of  New  England 
business  are  to  be  determined  by  their  will.  Her 
cities,  towns,  and  villages  are  to  wither  and  dry  up 
or  to  grow  and  flourish  at  their  pleasure.  It  will 
be  of  no  avail  for  the  factories  of  the  interior  to 
move  to  the  seaboard,  for  this  railroad  despotism 
rules  the  sea  as  well  as  the  land.  It  completely 
dominates  the  navigation  of  Long  Island  Sound, 
the  great  ship  canal  that  bathes  our  southern  bor- 
der. A  view  taken  from  the  top  of  Bunker  Hill 
monument  will  show  that  almost  every  dock  in 
Boston  Harbor  is  in  its  control.  From  Eastport, 
Maine,  to  New  York  City,  the  tariff  laws  of  this  de 
facto  consolidated  government  have  infinitely  more 
influence  upon  life  and  upon  business  than  have 
the  tariff  laws  of  Congress. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  New  York, 
New  Haven  &  Hartford  Railroad  Company,  with  its 
comparatively  level  track  and  few  curves,  can  haul 
the  heaviest  loads  at  the  lowest  cost  of  almost  any 
road  in  the  country  its  average  freight  rate  per 
mile  is  among  the  highest  in  the  country.  It  is 
nearly  double  the  average  rate  in  the  United  States  ; 
it  is  more  than  double  the  average  rate  in  the 
Middle  States,  in  Ohio,  Illinois,  Indiana,  and 


40  A    GENERAL  / 'HEIGHT 

Michigan.  This  is  no  eleemosynary  corporation, 
said  General  Freight  Agent  Mellen,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Hartford,  Connecticut, 
in  the  fall  of  1895,  and  to  make  his  meaning  clear 
he  said  that  it  was  perfectly  just  and  reasonable  to 
charge  $60  for  hauling  a  carload  of  peaches 
from  Harlem  River  to  Hartford,  no  miles  (a 
whole  freight  train  can  be  hauled  the  same  dis- 
tance for  about  $30)  ;  and  with  the  same  degree 
of  reason  he  charges  $60  for  the  haul  of  the 
peach-car  to  New  Haven,  73  miles.  A  brick  con- 
cern located  on  a  side-track  of  this  road  about  2| 
miles  from  Hartford  needs  slack  coal  in  its  busi- 
ness. Its  value  delivered  on  the  cars  at  Meriden 
is  $30  for  a  carload  of  twenty  tons.  The  rail- 
road demands  seventy-five  cents  a  ton,  $15  for 
hauling  this  car  14  miles.  The  service  would 
add  to  the  expenses  of  the  road  perhaps  fifteen 
cents.  Again  this  same  brick  concern  wants  cer- 
tain carloads  of  wood  hauled  from  Hartford  to  its 
side-track.  The  Connecticut  farmer  gets  $2.15  for 
growing,  cutting,  hauling,  and  loading  this  wood 
upon  the  car.  The  railroad  demands  seventy-five 
cents  a  cord  for  simply  hauling  the  wood  2\  miles, 
a  service  that  would  hardly  add  to  the  expenses  of 
the  road  five  cents. 

The  passenger  fares  on  the  various  lines  of  this 
consolidated  road  are,  in  most  cases,  nearly  as  high 
as  they  were  in  1850,  and,  in  some  cases,  con- 
solidation has  very  much  increased  the  fares. 

On  the  main  stem,  the  fare  from  New  Haven  to 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  41 

New  York  to-day  is  one  dollar  and  a  half,  the  same 
as  in  1849,  but  from  most  of  the  stations  west  of 
New  Haven  the  fare  for  the  round  trip  to  New 
York  is  from  ten  to  twenty  cents  higher.  From 
Bridgeport  the  increase  for  the  round  trip  is  thirty 
cents,  from  Hartford  ten  cents.  From  Boston,  the 
traveller  of  1850,  could  make  a  trip  to  and  fro  New 
York,  over  the  three  or  more  short  lines  of  the 
route  via  Springfield  and  New  Haven,  for  one  dol- 
lar less  than  to-day  over  the  consolidated  through 
line.  The  increased  charge  for  the  round  trip  from 
New  York  to  Kent,  over  that  in  force  in  1850,  is 
thirty-six  cents  ;  to  Falls  Village,  forty  cents  ;  to 
Great  Barrington,  one  dollar  and  ten  cents ;  to 
Lee,  Lenox,  Stockbridge  and  Pittsfield,  one  dollar 
and  fifty  cents,  and  yet  the  cost  of  running  a  rail- 
road train,  hauled  by  modern  coal  burning  engines 
over  the  consolidated  steel  track  of  to-day  is  far 
less  than  it  was  over  the  short  iron  roads,  with  the 
slow,  wood  burning  engines  of  1850. 

In  speed,  in  accommodation,  in  ease  and  com- 
fort of  travel,  the  gain  to  the  public  from  the  im- 
provements made  in  the  railroads,  in  the  last  half 
century,  has  been  wonderful,  but,  as  I  have  shown, 
the  transportation  tax  levied  on  the  traveller  to-day 
is  very  generally  as  high  as  it  was  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  railroad  era,  and  it  is  full  half  as  high 
per  mile  as  was  the  charge  on  the  old  stage  lines, 
although  the  cost  to  the  railroad,  where  the  trans- 
portation tax  is  such  that  the  people  can  use  rail- 
way trains  up  to  their  capacity,  is  not  a  fiftieth  as 


•v 


42  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

much  as  by  stage.  In  the  transportation  of  freight 
there  has  been  a  considerable  reduction  from  the 
cost  by  ox-cart,  but  there  is  no  such  thing  as  equal- 
ity or  uniformity  or  stability  or  certainty  in  the  tax 
levied  on  freight ;  neither  is  there  any  such  thing 
as  equality  of  service.  I  shall  also  show  later  that 
freight  taxes  are  vastly  higher  than  they  ought  to  be. 
The  evil  of  the  situation  lies  right  here.  Un- 
der the  mileage  system  of  rates  applied  in 
local  traffic,  and  the  lack  of  any  other  rule 
for  the  determination  of  through  rates  than 
the  will  of  the  railway  king,  modified  to  some 
extent  by  the  wills  of  other  railway  kings,  the 
public  are  obliged  to  pay  the  actual  value  instead 
of  the  mere  cost  of  the  service  rendered  by  the  rail- 
ways, and  the  difference,  amounting  in  many  cases 
to  half  and  in  some  cases  to  the  full  value  of  the 
products  transported,  is  taken  by  the  railroads, 
which  are  thereby  rapidly  absorbing  the  greater 
part  of  the  wealth  of  the  country.  In  the  spring  of 
1895,  certain  farmers  of  my  acquaintance  endeav- 
ored to  make  contracts  with  the  railroads  to  carry 
their  crops  to  market  for  half  what  they  would  sell 
for,  but  their  propositions  were  laughed  at.  Hav- 
ing the  power  the  railroad  managers  preferred  to 
confiscate  the  entire  proceeds.  And  this,  as  the 
following  instances  will  prove,  they  actually  accom- 
plished. Saving  names  of  persons  and  of  places,  the 
following  are  exact  copies  of  original  bills,  relating 
to  sales  and  freight  on  watermelons,  made  in  the 
summer  of  1895. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  43 

PHILADELPHIA,  July  22,  '95. 
Sales  by  A.  B.,  Commission  Merchant  in  Fruit  and 

Vegetables. 

For   account,  J.  K.  G.   of  G.,    South  Carolina, 
July  22. 

Car  1389. 
7/22       1109   melons  at    12 

cents $133  08 

Freight $122  05 

Charges,    Commis- 
sions    ii  09 

$133  14 

Due     A.     B.   from 
farmer 06 

PHILADELPHIA,  July  26,  '95. 
one  car  No. — 
July  25,  1250  melons  at  g\ 

cents $118  75 

Freight $85  84 

Commissions n  88 

Net  proceeds 21  03       $118  75 

The  A.  and  B.  Co., 

C VILLE.  July  27,  '95. 

Mr.  J.  K.  G., 

G.,  South  Carolina. 
DEAR  SIR  : — 

I    enclose    check   for   $53.00    net 
amount  for  car  15185 

Sold  for $175  5° 

Less  freight 122  50        $53  oo 

Yours  truly, 

F.  B.  P. 


44  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

Please  observe  that  on  the  carload  of  melons, 
shipped  to  Philadelphia  on  the  22d  of  July,  the 
freight  was  $122.05  and  three  days  later  the  rate 
was  reduced  to  $85.84  ;  while  on  the  car  shipped 

July  2yth  to  C ville,  Va.,  perhaps  two  thirds 

the  distance  to  Philadelphia,  the  rate  was  the  same 
as  on  the  first  car  and  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  more 
than  the  rate  on  the  second  car  to  Philadelphia. 
Note  also  that,  at  this  very  time,  the  rate  on  flour 
shipped  from  the  North  to  the  town  of  G.,  was 
but  $40,  while  that  on  the  melons  sent  to  the 
North,  perhaps  in  the  same  car,  the  same  distance, 
and  over  the  same  roads,  was  more  than  three  times 
as  much.  Mr.  G.  shipped  eight  carloads  of  melons 
in  the  summer  of  1895,  for  the  transportation  of 
which  the  railroads  exacted  $1100,  while  Mr.  G. 
received  about  $123  for  raising  the  melons,  hauling 
them  from  his  farm  to  the  station,  and  loading 
them  on  to  the  cars. 

No  wonder  that  he  became  disgusted  with  the 
business  and  turned  over  the  rest  of  the  crop  to 
his  stock.  And  my  friend's  experience  was  the 
same  with  regard  to  Irish  potatoes  ;  and  "  The 
worst  of  it  is,"  he  says,  "  there  seems  to  be  no 
hope  of  anything  better." 

A  company  of  Connecticut  peach  growers  have 
lately  set  out  a  peach  orchard  of  some  six  hundred 
acres  at  Fort  Valley,  Georgia.  In  1895  they  shipped 
their  first  crop,  of  which  some  eighty-five  cars  came 
North.  The  railway  charges  were  as  follows  :  For 
icing,  $90  per  car  to  New  York  ;  $100  a  car  to 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  45 

Hartford  ;  for  haulage,  $174  per  car  for  the  haul 
of  about  1000  miles  from  Fort  Valley  to  New 
York,  and  $60  per  car  from  New  York  to  Hartford. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  haul  from  Fort  Valley  to 
Hartford  did  not  cost  the  railroads  anywhere  near 
$60  per  car. 

The  Arena  of  October,  '95,  tells  the  following 
story  :  "  A  carload  of  potatoes  was  shipped  from 
Colorado  to  Chicago  in  the  summer  of  '95,  and, 
upon  arrival  at  Chicago,  the  railroads  confiscated 
the  whole  load,  and  went  after  the  shipper  for  $28 
more.  A  gardener  shipped  thirty  cases  of  green 
peas  from  Texas  to  Chicago  by  express.  The  peas 
sold  on  the  market  for  $22  ;  the  express  charges 
were  $26.50." 

A  short  time  ago,  one  of  my  friends  had  a  book 
sent  from  Philadelphia  to  Titusville.  He  paid  one 
dollar  for  the  book,  seventy-five  cents  for  the  ex- 
pressage.  A  similar  service  performed  by  the  Ger- 
man Post-office  would  cost  twelve  and  one  half 
cents. 

Along  in  1885,  Daniel  Buchanan  went  to  the 
new  State  of  Washington  to  see  what  were  the 
prospects  for  settlement.  Coming  to  the  station 
known  as  Ritzville,  on  the  Northern  Pacific  Road, 
he  found  the  land  in  the  vicinity  well  adapted  to 
the  raising  of  grain,  and  examining  into  the  matter 
of  transportation  (for  there  is  no  use  in  raising 
grain  unless  one  can  get  it  to  market),  he  ascer- 
tained that  the  rates  to  St.  Paul  from  Washington 
points  were  forty  cents  a  hundred.  These  rates 


46  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

seemed  to  leave  a  reasonable  margin  for  profit  at 
the  price  asked  for  the  land,  and  accordingly  Mr. 
Buchanan  bought  two  sections  from  the  railroad 
company.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  value  of  the 
land  was  practically  a  matter  of  railway  rates  and 
of  railway  facilities.  At  the  rates  then  charged, 
the  land  had  some  value,  and  Mr.  Buchanan  paid 
that  value.  Higher  rates  would  mean  practical 
confiscation  not  only  of  the  land,  but  of  all  the 
improvements  thereon.  For  three  years  the  rates 
remained  the  same,  and  the  production  of  grain 
along  the  road  increased  rapidly.  Then,  in  1888, 
in  order  to  check  production  and  to  save  itself  the 
necessity  of  providing  additional  facilities  for  the 
transportation  of  the  increasing  produce,  the  com- 
pany increased  the  rate  on  wheat  to  forty-five 
cents.  But  this  did  not  sufficiently  dampen  the 
ardor  of  the  farmers,  and  the  next  year  the  railroad 
raised  the  rate  on  wheat  to  fifty  cents,  and  on  bar- 
ley to  fifty-six  cents,  the  total  increase  being  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  in  the  one  case,  and  thirty-three  and 
one  third  per  cent,  in  the  other.  Mr.  Buchanan 
appealed  to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 
They  decided  that,  under  the  law,  the  action  of 
the  railroad  was  perfectly  justifiable.  The  in- 
creased rate  was  not  unreasonable,  and,  since  Mr. 
Buchanan  had  failed  to  secure  from  the  railroad 
company  at  the  time  of  his  purchase  an  agreement 
not  to  increase  rates  in  the  future,  he  had  no 
remedy. 

In   other  words,  under  the  law,  a  man  may  be 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  47 

induced  to  purchase  land  of  a  railway  by  the  offer 
of  low  rates,  and  when  he  is  once  located  the  rates 
may  be  raised  so  as  to  practically  force  the  settler 
to  give  to  the  railway  not  only  the  original  value 
of  the  land,  but  the  value  of  his  improvements, 
and  the  value  of  his  labor  for  all  the  future.  And 
people  wonder  why  Western  farmers  fail  to  pay  the 
interest  on  their  mortgages  ! 

We  used  to  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  evils  of 
Irish  landlordism,  but  recent  investigations  prove 
that,  both  in  Ireland  and  in  America,  the  railway 
manager  has  more  to  do  with  the  untoward  condi- 
tions of  life  and  of  business  than  all  other  causes 
put  together. 

"  The  real  rulers  of  Ireland,"  says  a  recent  writer, 
"  are  the  conference  of  representatives  of  the  Irish 
Railway  and  Steamship  lines. 

"  The  traffic  is  managed  without  regard  to  pub- 
lic needs  or  convenience.  The  local  rates  are  so 
exorbitant  as  to  have  stamped  out  several  once 
flourishing  industries  and  to  have  crippled  those 
that  remain." — "  No  idea  exists  save  to  put  as 
heavy  a  toll  as  possible  upon  everybody  and  every- 
thing appearing  at  the  station." 

With  a  slight  modification  these  statements  apply 
admirably  well  to  the  condition  of  things  in  this 
country.  The  real  rulers  of  the  United  States  are 
the  Joint  Traffic  Association.  Already  within  the 
first  brief  year  of  its  existence,  this  Association  had 
gone  far  towards  attaining  its  declared  end  of 
"strengthening  rates  everywhere."  Freights  on 


48  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

east-bound  products  from  California  by  the  Sunset 
Route  have  been  increased  fifty  per  cent.  The 
local  rates,  on  beef  on  the  hoof,  on  the  Michigan 
Central,  have  been  increased  one  hundred  per  cent. 
Excursion  rates  from  the  central  passenger  district 
to  Niagara  Falls  are  one  hundred  per  cent,  higher 
in  1896  than  they  were  in  1895. 

The  Eastern  railway  and  coal  pool  has  made  the 
price  of  stove  coal  at  tide  water  for  the  summer 
of  1896,  one  dollar  and  thirty  cents  a  ton  higher 
than  in  the  summer  of  1895  and  forty-five  cents 
higher  than  the  summer  average  for  the  past  six 
years.  (SeeTV^.  Y.  Herald,  June  30,  1896.)  And  the 
Western  railway  and  coal  pool  is  doing  in  the  West 
what  the  Eastern  association  has  done  in  the  East. 
And  this  increase  in  the  charges  for  transportation 
has  taken  place  in  the  face  of  enormous  reductions, 
in  the  actual  cost  of  doing  the  business,  and  at  a 
time  when  the  low  value  of  products  and  of  labor 
demanded  that  the  advantages  accruing  from  the 
improvements  in  transportation  should  be  shared 
by  the  whole  people.  The  prices  of  Western  pro- 
duce were  never  lower  ;  the  demand  for  Eastern 
manufactures  was  probably  never  more  stagnant. 
Each  needs  the  other's  produce  and  the  world 
needs  the  surplus  of  both,  but  the  managers  of 
our  private  systems  of  communication  and  trans- 
portation stand  between  each  man  and  his  cus- 
tomer, and  allow  the  exchange  of  products  and  of 
services  only  on  terms  which  amount  to  practical 
confiscation.1 

1  The  prosperity  of  the  West  in  1897,  sectional  at  best,  can- 
not be  permanent. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  49 

Even  this  might  be  endured  if  it  were  likely  to 
result  in  any  corresponding  benefit  to  the  masses  of 
the  stockholders  in  these  public  service  corpora- 
tions. It  is  probable,  however,  that  as  a  rule  the 
stockholders  in  these  corporations  will  suffer  with 
the  general  public.  As  long  ago  as  1888,  Franklin 
B.  Gowen  of  Pennsylvania,  estimated  that  from 
$50,000,000  to  $100,000,000  of  the  transportation 
taxes  then  exacted  from  the  people  by  railroad 
managers  were  distributed  annually  among  a  few 
favored  shippers,  and  "  as  a  result  of  a  personal 
examination  made  as  an  expert  for  stockholders," 
he  declared  that  one  of  the  great  trunk  lines 
had,  in  the  previous  twenty  years,  thus  diverted 
to  favorites  of  the  managers  $100,000,000  of  the 
money  belonging  to  the  stockholders. 

One  of  the  most  subtle  methods  by  which  rail- 
road managers  at  once  increase  their  profits,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  without  cost  to  themselves,  pur- 
chase the  support  of  the  most  powerful  organs  of 
public  opinion,  is  by  the  issue  of  passes.  The  fol- 
lowing testimony  sworn  to  before  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  by  the  officers  of  the  Bos- 
ton &  Maine  three  or  four  years  ago,  shows  the 
prevailing  practice  in  New  England  and  presumably 
throughout  the  whole  country.  The  persons  to 
whom  free  transportation  is  given,  are  divided  into 
ten  classes. 

Class  I  "  includes  sick,  necessitous  or  indigent 
persons,  in  short  all  cases  of  charity  strictly." 

As  to  the  particular  sick,  necessitous  or  indigent 


50  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

persons  upon  whom  the  railway  manager  shall  be- 
stow these  imperial  favors,  he  is  of  course  the  sole 
judge.  Whether  clergymen  are  placed  in  this  cate- 
gory or  in  Class  X,  which  covers  persons  whose 
"  good-will  is  of  importance  to  the  corporation,"  we 
are  not  informed.  Special  provision,  however,  was 
made  in  the  Interstate  Act  (was  it  done  by  railway 
officials  ?)  to  enable  the  growing  railway  state  to 
bring  the  church  to  its  support  by  allowing  "  re- 
duced rates  to  be  given  to  ministers  of  religion," 
and  we  shall  see  later  that  no  pains  have  been 
spared,  by  railway  managers,  to  carry  out  this  par- 
ticular provision  of  law  both  as  to  its  intent  and  as 
to  its  letter. 

Class  II  "  includes  gentlemen  long  eminent  in 
the  public  service." 

A  traveller  on  one  of  the  Pullman  cars  bound 
for  Washington,  at  the  opening  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
Congress,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  he  was  the 
only  person  on  the  car  who  paid  any  fare.  All 
the  rest,  "  gentlemen  in  the  public  service,"  Con- 
gressmen, travelled  free. 

Class  III  is  made  up  of  "  the  proprietors  of 
summer  hotels  and  large  boarding-houses,  con- 
formably to  a  practice  which  has  long  existed 
among  all  railroads  in  New  England." 

Class  IV  "  includes  wives  of  employees  and  other 
immediate  members  of  employees'  families." 

Do  the  wives  and  children  of  engineers  and  fire- 
men, of  brakemen  and  trackmen,  of  conductors 
and  station-masters,  get  free  transportation  over 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  51 

our  railroads?  Not  often,  I  think.  It  is  far  more 
probable  that  this  class  is  intended  to  cover  those 
railway  employees  who  frequent  legislative  halls 
and  the  chambers  of  municipal  councils.  We 
have  heard  of  such  employees  who,  it  is  said,  are 
not  only  provided  with  free  transportation  but  are 
also  paid  thousands  of  dollars  annually  for  their 
valuable  services. 

Class  V  "  includes  all  agents  of  ice  companies  and 
all  milk  contractors  doing  business  on  the  line  of 
the  Boston  &  Maine  Railroad,  or  any  part  thereof 
extending  between  two  states,  said  agents  and  con- 
tractors travelling  on  trains  in  the  conduct  of  their 
business." 

A  word  right  here  as  to  these  milk  contractors. 
It  is  a  very  common  practice  for  railway  managers 
to  give  to  a  single  man  or  corporation  the  exclusive 
control  of  all  the  milk  business  on  their  lines  and 
to  refuse  to  farmers  or  other  milk  dealers,  the 
transportation  of  their  milk  except  through  the 
agency  of  these  favored  individuals.  Some  of  these 
milk  agreements,  moreover,  are  so  very  lucrative 
to  the  contractors  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  profits  are  shared 
with  the  individual  railway  official  or  the  small 
group  of  officials  responsible  for  the  agreements. 

In  his  brief  (pages  33  and  38)  in  the  case  of  The 
Milk  Producers'  Protective  Association  against  the 
Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western  Railroad  and 
others,  tried  in  New  York,  in  December,  1895, 
Joseph  H.  Choate,  counsel  for  the  petitioners, 


52  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

shows  that  the  milk  contractor  on  the  D.,  L.  &  W. 
R.R.,  receives  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
receipts  of  the  road  from  its  milk  traffic,  6-^  cents 
on  every  forty-quart  can  of  milk  and  ten  cents  on 
every  forty-quart  can  of  cream.  Out  of  a  total  of 
$489,000  paid  to  this  road  for  the  transportation 
of  1,649,773  cans  of  milk  and  cream,  in  1894,  the 
contractor  received  $97,000.  The  counsel  of  the 
railroad,  in  their  reply  to  Mr.  Choate,  (see  pages  8 
and  34  of  their  brief)  admit  that  this  contractor 
"  practically  controls  the  milk  business  on  the  line 
of  the  road  because  he  has  in  his  hands  the  dealers 
who  take  the  supply  "  ;  and  they  further  admit  that 
his  current  expenses,  in  1894,  were  but  $45,000. 
His  milk  salary  therefore  for  that  year  was  $52,000, 
or  $2000  more  than  the  salary  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  In  1895,  he  earned  the 
same  income  from  the  same  business  in  nine 
months  that  he  had  earned  in  1894  in  twelve 
months.  Mr.  Choate  speaks  of  this  money  as 
"  taken  actually  and  absolutely  out  of  the  pockets 
of  the  stockholders."  I  prefer  to  look  at  it  as  a 
forced  contribution  from  the  farmers  along  the  D., 
L.  &  W.'s  lines  and  from  the  consumers  of  milk  in 
New  York  City  and  its  neighborhood.  It  Is  but 
fair  to  add  that,  of  this  $52,000  salary,  the  defend- 
ant's counsel  estimate  that  $30,000  to  $35,000  were 
invested  in  creameries,  so  that  the  contractor's 
clear  pocket-money  was  only  $19,000  for  1894,  but 
as  the  materials  of  the  creameries  were  carried  free 
and  as  the  creameries  were  to  be  sold  for  his  ben- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  53 

efit,  we  may  assume  that  they  proved  a  very  good 
investment  for  his  surplus. 

The  evidence  in  this  case  seems  to  be  conclusive 
that  the  rates  charged,  by  the  railroads  west  of  the 
Hudson,  on  milk  for  the  New  York  market,  are 
two  or  three  times  higher  than  they  would  be  on  a 
cost  of  the  service  basis.  The  farmers  work  their 
farms,  the  railroads  and  railrcad  contractors  take 
the  farmers'  legitimate  profits.  In  addition  to  their 
other  powers  these  contractors  seem  to  have  no  small 
amount  of  influence  in  the  distribution  of  passes. 

Perhaps  the  most  glaring  instance  of  personal 
injustice  brought  to  light  in  this  trial  was  that  of 
Messrs.  Howell,  Brothers,  of  Goshen,  New  York, 
by  the  Ontario  &  Western  Railroad.  Some  time 
in  1890  or  '91  these  gentlemen  established  a  cream- 
ery on  this  road,  covering  the  two  points  of  Ham- 
den  and  Delancy,  for  the  manufacture  of  cream 
from  new  milk  by  the  centrifugal  process.  Fifteen 
cans  of  milk  were  concentrated  into  one  can  of 
cream  and  the  consequent  saving  in  transportation 
was  immense.  Things  appeared  to  go  on  very 
well  until  the  26th  of  November,  1892,  when  the 
firm  received  the  following  letter  : 

"  NEW  YORK,  ONTARIO,  &  WESTERN  RAILROAD  Co, 
"  November  26,  1892. 

"  Howell,  Bros.,  Goshen,  New  York. 
"  GENTLEMEN  : — 

"  Before  you  went  on  the  Delhi  Branch,  we  used 
to  have  the  milk  from  Hamden  and  Delancy  but  I 


54  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

regret,  since  you  began  operation,  we  have  lost 
half  the  bulk  of  our  revenue.  In  looking  back  I 
see  that  our  receipts  from  these  two  stations  were 
over  $17,000  a  year.  In  May,  June,  and  July,  1892, 
your  shipments  were  $355,  $435,  an^  $53°  respec- 
tively. We  have  therefore  determined  to  build 
two  creameries,  one  at  Hawley's  and  one  at  De- 
lancy,  and  to  put  a  New  York  milk  dealer  in  pos- 
session and  see  if  we  cannot  build  up  our  milk 
business  to  what  it  formerly  was.  I  trust  you  will 
appreciate  our  position  in  this  matter.  We  do  not, 
of  course,  want  to  do  anything  to  hurt  your  busi- 
ness but,  at  the  same  time,  we  feel  that  this  is  one 
of  the  finest  milk  territories  in  the  East  and  should 
be  worked  for  all  it  is  worth. 

"  J.  C.  ANDERSON, 

"  General  Freight  Agent."    , 

This  letter  was  followed  by  a  proposition  for  an 
appraisal  of  Messrs.  Howell's  property  by  disinter- 
ested parties  and  by  an  agreement  on  the  part  of 
the  railroad  company  to  accept  the  appraiser's 
finding.  This  agreement,  however,  was  no  sooner 
made  than  it  was  broken  by  the  railway  company 
and  Messrs.  Howell  were  obliged  to  turn  over  their 
creamery  to  the  railroad  appointee  at  his  own 
terms  and  at  a  heavy  loss.  Verily,  Wm.  H.  Van- 
derbilt  made  a  great  mistake,  in  1879,  when  he 
said,  "  The  railroad  corporation  is  organized  pri- 
marily for  the  benefit  of  the  State."  He  should 
have  said,  "  The  State  exists  simply  for  the  rail- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  55 

road."  But  to  return  to  the  matter  of  passes 
issued  by  the  Boston  &  Maine  Railroad. 

Class  VI  includes  the  higher  officers  of  state,  in 
the  States  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
and  Massachusetts  and  certain  prominent  officers  of 
the  United  States,  like  Collectors  of  Customs. 

Class  VII  includes  the  Railroad  Commission- 
ers of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and 
Massachusetts. 

Class  VIII  includes  the  members  of  the  Rail- 
road Committee,  for  the  time  being,  of  each  of  the 
legislatures  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
and  Massachusetts. 

Class  IX  includes  persons  who  are  trustees 
under  mortgages  on  the  property  of  the  corporation 
who  are  entitled  to  inspect  its  property,  by  virtue 
of  deed  or  indenture  constituting  them  trustees. 

Class  X  called  complimentary,  includes  persons 
whose  "good-will"  is  important  to  the  corporation 
and  who,  so  long  as  the  practice  remains  what  it 
now  is,  might  justly  take  offence  if,  in  the  matter  of 
free  transportation,  they  were  to  receive  from  the 
Boston  &  Maine  Road  different  treatment  from 
that  received  from  other  railroads. 

A  very  interesting  schedule  really,  but  lacking  in 
one  particular.  The  Boston  &  Maine  Railway 
managers  are  not  sufficiently  pious.  For  real 
downright  piety,  one  must  go  to  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  and,  in  evidence  of  it,  read  the  following 
reply  reported  to  have  been  made  by  one  of  its 
officials  to  some  carping  critic  who  complains  of 


56  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  worldly  spirit  of  their  clerical  friends.  The 
following  quotation  from  the  New  York  Recorder, 
published  in  The  Coming  Nation  of  Feb.  15,  1895, 
bears  this  significant  title  :  "  Why  the  Pulpit  is 
Silent  on  the  Subject  of  Railway  Rates, — Shaping 
Public  Opinion." 

"  The  officers  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  sys- 
tem cannot  understand  the  complaint  which  has 
been  made  by  a  neighbor  in  the  business,  that  there 
has  been  a  misuse  of  the  clerical  half  rate.  '  No 
road  in  the  country  has  issued  more  of  these  tickets 
than  ours,'  said  Assistant  General  Passenger  Agent 
Boyd/and  we  have  certainly  had  no  cause  to  believe 
that  our  clerical  friends  have  in  any  way  misused 
their  privileges.  Last  year  (1894)  we  issued  be- 
tween 13,000  and  14,000  orders  to  clergymen  on 
our  lines  east  and  west  of  Pittsburg. 

" '  We  give  them  not  only  to  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  but  also  to  missionaries  and  Salvation  Army 
officers  ;  but  care  is  taken  to  see  that  only  proper 
persons  get  them,  and  I  guess  in  that  fact  lies  the 
reason  they  do  not  get  into  the  hands  of  unworthy 
persons.  Clergymen,  in  their  work  of  shaping 
public  opinion  and  elevating  the  moral  tone  of  the 
people,  are  certainly  a  most  worthy  class,  and  this 
corporation  has  always  felt  that  liberal  treatment 
accorded  them  would  serve  the  double  purpose  of 
contributing  to  the  good  work,  and  of  aiding  a 
most  worthy  class  of  at  least  badly  paid  workers.' " 

To  those  acquainted  with  the  history  of  this  cor- 
poration as  set  forth  in  the  investigations  of  the 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  57 

Hepburn  Committee  of  the  New  York  Legislature, 
and  in  the  various  investigations  made  by  Con- 
gress, the  high  regard  for  public  morals  asserted  in 
this  reported  statement  seems  infinitely  absurd. 
There  can  be  but  one  motive  for  the  distribution 
of  special  railway  privileges  among  those  who 
shape  public  opinion,  and  whose  "good-will"  is 
therefore  of  importance  to  railway  managers.  No 
man  whose  life  is  consecrated  to  the  advancement 
of  the  common  welfare  will,  I  believe,  accept  such 
favors  when  he  once  understands  what  is  expected 
of  him  in  return. 

But  the  list  of  American  privileged  classes  is  not 
yet  complete.  It  is  especially  provided  by  law 
that  every  railroad  company  may  exchange  passes 
or  tickets  with  other  railroads  for  their  officers 
and  employees.  Not  infrequently  this  has  been 
interpreted  to  include  their  families,  and  now, 
"  after  a  long  and  interesting  agitation,  representa- 
tives of  the  more  prominent  steamship  lines  are  to 
have  annual  passes  over  the  roads  west  of  Chicago, 
parties  to  the  Western  Pass  Agreement."  Evi- 
dently the  abatement  of  "  the  free  pass  nuisance," 
spoken  of  by  Van  Oss  in  his  work  on  American 
railways,  was  but  temporary.  It  seems  more  than 
probable  that,  as  was  the  case  ten  or  twelve  years  ago, 
so  now,  must  "  business  men  carry  their  annual." 

"  In  the  West  at  least  one  fifth  of  all  passengers 
travel  on  free  passes.  Another  regrettable  usance 
is  that  railroad  advertisements  as  a  rule  are  paid 
for  with  tickets  which  are  frequently  sold." 


58  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

As  long  ago  as  1871,  it  was  said  that  this  deaden- 
ing railway  power  cost  the  people  of  New  Jersey  at 
least  ten  millions  a  year,  from  the  depression  it 
caused  to  agriculture,  while  its  effect  upon  the 
political  morality  of  the  State  and  upon  its  educa- 
tional interests  was  to  make  New  Jersey  a  synonym 
for  sloth  and  backwardness  in  civilization.  And 
in  Pennsylvania,  "  in  the  coal  regions,  where  their 
power  is  absolute,  they  have  inaugurated  a  sub- 
jection of  labor  to  capital  which  is  unsurpassed 
anywhere  in  the  civilized  world.  This  region  of 
country  presents  a  social  order  which,  in  the 
degradation  of  labor  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
employer  surpasses  even  the  worst  results  which 
slavery  attained.  The  political  influence,  how- 
ever, of  these  combined  monopolies  has  been 
strong  enough  to  oblige  the  General  Government 
to  station  detachments  of  its  troops,  at  its  own  ex- 
pense, for  the  suppression  of  any  discontent  among 
the  miners,  should  their  ignorance  and  degradation 
lead  to  acts  of  violence." — The  Westminster  Re- 
view^ January,  1871. 

In  December,  1872,  an  article  appeared  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  entitled  :  "  The  Fight  of  a  Man 
with  a  Railroad."  Some  time  in  the  early  part  of 
1868,  John  A.  Coleman,  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  pur- 
chased a  ticket  from  Providence  to  New  York 
via  the  New  York,  New  Haven,  &  Hartford  Rail- 
road. Detained  by  business  in  New  Haven  until 
it  was  too  late  to  continue  his  trip  by  rail,  he  made 
the  rest  of  the  iourney  by  boat  and,  thus  had  his 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  59 

coupon  for  the  trip  from  New  Haven  to  New  York 
on  his  hands.  No  opportunity  came  for  its  use 
until  June  u,  1868,  when,  being  in  New  York,  it 
occurred  to  Mr.  Coleman  that  it  might  be  available 
for  his  return  trip.  He  accordingly  presented  the 
coupon  to  the  guard  stationed  at  the  cars.  The 
officer  declared  the  ticket  good  for  nothing,  and 
ordered  him  not  to  board  the  train.  Mr.  Coleman 
then  purchased  a  ticket  to  Providence  via  New 
Haven,  and  entered  the  cars,  still  determined,  how- 
ever, to  use  his  idle  coupon,  if  possible.  The  con- 
ductor, on  being  offered  the  ticket,  said  that  it  was 
good  from  New  Haven  to  New  York,  but  not  for  the 
reverse  trip,  and  demanded  another  ticket  of  Mr. 
Coleman,  adding  that  otherwise  he  would  be  put  off 
the  train  at  Stamford.  On  arrival  at  the  Stamford 
station  the  conductor  entered  the  car  with  five  or 
six  assistants,  and  pointing  to  Mr.  Coleman,  said  : 
"  This  is  the  man,  pull  him  out  and  put  him  on  the 
platform."  A  struggle  ensued,  in  which  Mr.  Cole- 
man was  struck  several  times  on  the  head,  and  was 
finally  thrown  upon  the  platform.  When  he  next 
reached  Boston,  he  attached  the  Boston  Express 
train,  and  brought  suit  in  the  Massachusetts  Su- 
perior Court  for  $10,000  damages.  The  case  was 
tried  four  times,  and  although  in  each  of  three  out 
of  four  trials  the  jury  gave  to  the  plaintiff  over 
$3,400  damages,  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  the 
fourth  trial,  and  after  a  four  years'  contest  that  the 
corporation  yielded. 

In  the  long  course  of  these  various  trials,  one  of 


60  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

the  influential  persons  connected  with  the  corpora- 
tion made  the  remark  which  stands  at  the  head  of 
the  Atlantic  article,  and  which  ought,  I  think, 
to  be  engraven  on  the  mind  of  every  American 
citizen  : — "  The  Road  has  no  personal  animosity 
against  you,  Mr.  Coleman,  but  you  represent  the 
public,  and  the  Road  is  determined  to  make  it  so 
terrible  for  the  public  to  fight  it,  right  or  wrong, 
that  they  will  stop  it.  We  are  not  going  to  be  at- 
tacked in  this  way!' 

In  1877  there  occurred  the  fearful  riots  at  Pitts- 
burgh, riots  which,  according  to  Van  Oss,  were 
directly  traceable  to  the  exercise  of  this  terrible 
railroad  power  against  the  public  welfare.  He  says 
that  Pittsburgh,  "  being  for  many  years  dependent 
upon  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  in  its  intercourse 
with  the  East,  has  probably  suffered  more  from 
railway  tyranny  than  any  other  city  in  the  Union. 
It  is  generally  known  how  favorably  the  city  of 
natural  gas  is  situated  ;  so  favorable,  indeed,  that 
in  spite  of  adverse  rates  it  has  become  the  Ameri- 
can Birmingham.  Yet  its  iron  and  glass  industries 
went  through  many  a  crisis  which  can  be  traced 
directly  to  railroad  discriminations  against  its  busi- 
ness. The  riots  of  1877,  for  instance,  caused  by  a 
lockout,  could  have  been  averted  if  rates  had  been 
more  favorable  ;  it  has  been  proven  that  in  that 
case  Pittsburgh  industries  could  have  worked  for 
exportation,  and  that  there  was  a  sufficient  profit 
on  railway  transportation  to  admit  of  a  very  sub- 
stantial reduction  of  the  tariffs." 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  6 1 

If  further  evidence  be  wanting  as  to  the  charac- 
ter of  this  power,  it  has  just  been  furnished  by  the  in- 
vestigations of  Postmaster-General  Wilson  as  to  the 
carnage  of  the  railway  mails.  Notwithstanding  the 
enormous  taxes  levied  upon  the  General  Govern- 
ment by  the  railways  for  mail  transportation,  it 
appears  that,  for  fifteen  years  past,  railway  man- 
agers have  been  accustomed  not  only  to  pay  no 
postage  on  their  own  mail  matter  transported  over 
their  own  lines,  but  also  to  carry  one  another's 
mails  without  making  any  return  therefor  to  the 
Government.  It  is  said  that  an  average  of  about 
300,000  pieces  per  month  of  this  unpaid  postal 
matter,  some  of  them  very  bulky,  pass  through  the 
Chicago  railway  mail  exchange  alone,  and  the  most 
of  them  are  letters  which  pass  over  other  roads  than 
those  on  which  they  originate.  The  editor  of  the 
Railway  Review  acknowledges  that  this  is  a  plain 
infraction  of  law  and,  very  curiously,  uses  it  as 
an  argument  against  the  Government  management 
of  railways.  The  laxity  of  the  Post-office  depart- 
ment in  not  enforcing  the  law  in  respect  to  this 
business  is  a  good  illustration,  he  thinks,  of  what 
might  be  expected  were  our  railways  operated  by 
the  Government.  But  there  is  another  way  of 
looking  at  this  matter.  No  ordinary  Postmaster- 
General  would  venture  to  criticise  the  acts  of  this 
terrible  power  which  has  so  often  proved  itself 
stronger  than  the  Government.  It  is  altogether 
possible  that  the  enforcement  of  the  law  in  this 
case  will  turn  the  present  postal  deficit  into  a 
handsome  profit. 


62  A    GENERAL   Fit EIGHT 

One  further  evil,  and  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all 
the  evils  incident  to  the  private  management  of 
these  public  works,  is  the  custom  of  giving  away 
stocks  and  bonds  (paper  currency  drawing  interest), 
sometimes  for  nothing,  sometimes  for  ten  cents  on 
the  dollar,  and  then  attempting,  by  means  of  high 
transportation  taxes,  to  force  the  public  to  redeem 
these  fraudulent  paper  issues  in  gold  at  one  hun- 
dred cents  on  the  dollar.  According  to  Von  Oss, 
(see  his  American  Railroads  as  Investments^  page  139) 
there  were  in  existence  of  these  stocks  in  1892,  some 
$4,650,000,000  of  which  only  $465,000,000,  and 
probably  less,  represented  any  real  investment  of 
capital.  The  balance,  over  $4,000,000,000,  was 
simply  the  measure  of  the  intent  of  railway  mana- 
gers to  levy  unnecessary  taxes  upon  the  people. 
*'  Hence  shares  now  return,"  Von  Oss  says,  "  at 
least  eighteen  per  cent,  upon  actual  investment. 
True,  those  owning  $1000  in  shares  receive  but  an 
average  of  $18  per  annum  upon  them  ;  but  in  the 
majority  of  cases  shares  cost  the  investor  nothing." 
And  as  to  bonds  :  "  These  bonds  represent  no  par 
investment  ;  the  average  price  at  which  they 
reached  the  first  investor  probably  did  not  exceed 
77,  no  matter  what  somebody  who  buys  them  to-day 
pays  for  them."  This  adds  some  $1,500,000,000 
more  of  paper  issues  representing  little  but  fraud, 
but  which  it  was  and  is  intended,  none  the  less, 
the  public  shall  redeem  at  par  in  taxes  paid  in  solid 
gold.  All  that  has  been  said  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding, water  emphatically  begets  a  desire 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  63 

on  the  part  of  railway  managers  to  charge  such 
rates  as  will  pay  returns  upon  fictitious  capital. 
We  see  its  hand  in  the  recent  rise  in  the  price 
of  anthracite  coal.1  The  New  York  Herald  of 
June  30,  1896,  says:  "All  of  the  coal  compa- 
nies had  yesterday  fallen  into  line  with  an  ad- 
vance of  twenty-five  cents,  making  the  price  at 
tide-water,  $4.10  per  ton.  This  is  $1.35  a  ton 
above  the  level  at  which  coal  was  sold  a  year 
ago,  and  is  45  cents  a  ton  above  the  average, 
at  this  season,  for  the  last  six  years."  "  The 
advance  made  yesterday,"  says  another  great 
New  York  daily,  speaking  of  the  same  move- 
ment, "  is  equal  to  $12,000,000  a  year  exacted  from 
consumers  by  the  coal  producers,  whose  trust  is 
now  working  perfectly  for  the  first  time  in  six 
years." 

As  we  read  this  story,  we  are  forcibly  re- 
minded of  the  condition  of  things  in  France 
before  the  great  Revolution,  and  the  more  so 
that  almost  every  serious  trouble  that  we  have 
had  in  this  country  in  the  last  thirty  years  has 
been  due  to  the  arbitrary  acts  of  our  railway 
kings,  who  in  their  rule  have  been  as  dicta- 
torial, as  unmerciful,  and  as  capricious  as  were 
ever  the  old  rulers  of  the  French.  Here,  too,  as 
in  old  France,  we  find  a  court  with  its  priv- 
ileged classes  provided  with  practically  free  trans- 
portation over  the  king's  highways,  while  the 
workers  on  the  farm,  in  the  mine,  the  forest, 
and  the  factory,  tied  by  railway  law  to  their 
1  This  refers  to  1896. 


64  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

narrow  homes,  are  compelled  to  work  from  year's 
end  to  year's  end  to  provide  for  the  privileges 
and  the  profits  secured  to  these  American  roy- 
alties, as  they  claim,  by  the  divine  right  of  their 
charters. 

In  some  cases,  moreover,  as  for  instance  in  Con- 
necticut, the  railway  king,  not  satisfied  with  his 
ordinary  revenue,  is  actually  going  back  to  the 
old  French  Corvee,  and  is  compelling  the  peo- 
ple to  work,  without  pay,  on  his  highway  im- 
provements. Of  this  character  is  every  dollar 
exacted  from  the  people  for  the  elimination  of 
grade  crossings.  The  city  of  Bridgeport  is  thus 
to  contribute  some  $400,000  of  the  labor  of  its  citi- 
zens for  the  improvement  of  the  Consolidated 
Railway. 

But  our  railway  rulers  do  not  rest  even  here. 
While  calling  to  their  aid  all  the  power  of  the 
Government  to  compel  their  employees  to  run 
such  mail  trains  as  they  may  find  convenient, 
railway  managers  change  mail  schedules  and  even 
take  off  mail  trains  altogether  at  their  pleasure, 
and,  in  neither  case,  do  these  royal  personages  rec- 
ognize the  existence  of  the  Government,  except  so 
far  as  to  send  to  its  officials  the  newly-printed  time- 
tables. 

As  long  ago  as  November  26,  1887,  Postmaster- 
General  Vilas  spoke  of  the  relation  of  the  Post- 
office  to  the  railways  in  the  following  language  : 
"  The  difficulties  of  solving  this  problem  do  not 
diminish  with  the  lapse  of  time  ;  they  steadily  in- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  65 

crease.  The  peril  to  the  public  is  not  lessened, 
but  augments  yearly.  There  must  be  legislation 
adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the  time,  or  this 
wretched  system,  with  its  inequalities,  its  injus- 
tice, unnecessary  expenditure,  irritating  complica- 
tions, and  risk  of  signal  disaster,  must  remain  a 
reproach  to  the  Department  until  some  serious 
misfortune  awakens  decisive  action.  The  statute 
is  seriously  defective  in  its  omission  to  require  and 
compel  the  service  of  the  railroads  in  mail  trans- 
portation. So  far  as  the  statute  goes,  it  is  at  the 
mere  option  of  these  common  carriers  to  serve  the 
Government,  and  it  illustrates  the  defect  and  evil 
of  it  to  state  that  one  road,  the  Old  Colony  Rail- 
road Company  of  Massachusetts,  has  notified  the 
Department  of  its  refusal  to  comply  with  the  statute. 
The  managers  of  some  of  the  New  England  roads 
have  refused  to  furnish  the  space  or  apartment  in 
a  car  necessary  for  the  proper  distribution  of  the 
mails,  and,  as  a  result,  this  branch  of  the  service  has 
been  caused  some  embarrassment  in  that  section, 
and  the  people  living  adjacent  to  such  lines  given 
just  cause  of  complaint."  1 

And  then,  proceeding  to  outline  the  legislation 
needed  for  the  common  welfare,  Mr.  Vilas  shows 
that  it  would  be  a  very  great  benefit  to  the  Gov- 
ernment to  own  its  postal  cars.  The  432  cars 
then  in  the  service,  342  in  ordinary  use,  90  in  re- 
serve, could  be  bought,  or  their  duplicates  manu- 

1  Report  of  the  Superintendent  Railway  Mail  Service, 
November  II,  1887. 


66  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

factured  for  $1,600,000,  while  the  entire  annual 
cost,  embracing  all  necessary  labor  and  ordinary 
repairs  would  not  be  over  $720  for  each  of  the  342 
cars,  in  ordinary  use,  or  $246,240,  making  a  total 
of  $1,846,240. 

Yet  for  the  mere  use  of  these  cars,  including 
cleaning,  etc.,  the  Department  was  then  paying 
$1,881,580  a  year,  and  the  amount  demanded  for 
the  ensuing  year  was  $2,000,000,  this  in  addition 
to  the  eight  cents  a  pound  paid  under  the  general 
item  of  transportation  of  the  mails  by  railroads. 
On  one  line  $59,037.75  was  annually  paid  for  the 
use  of  four  cars  that  could  be  built  and  fully 
equipped  in  the  best  modern  style  for  less  than 
$17,500,  and  this  in  addition  to  the  full  weight  pay 
for  transportation,  amounting  in  this  case  to  $504,- 
573.69  annually.  Mr.  Vilas  estimated  that  the  pur- 
chase of  its  postal  cars  would  save  to  the  Govern- 
ment at  least  $1,500,000  a  year,  against  which  the 
only  charge  would  be  the  cost  of  casualties.  "  It 
cannot  be  objected,"  he  said,  "  that  the  Department 
is  unable  to  assume  the  charge  of  these  cars.  The 
Department  can  easily  discharge  these  functions. 
It  might  receive  the  custody  of  all  the  cars  in  the 
service  and  thenceforth  care  for  them,  on  a  month's 
notice.  With  moderate  addition  to  its  force,  the 
railway  mail-office  can  provide  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  all  necessary.  Whatever  may  be  done  by 
any  private  hands,  may  as  well  be  done  by  the 
Department.  Ownership  by  the  Government  of 
its  postal  cars  cannot  but  much  relieve  the  difficul- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  6? 

ties  of  the  compensation  problem.  But  it  will  be 
indispensable,  at  the  outset,  whatever  shall  be  at- 
tempted, to  exert  the  rightful  prerogative  of  Gov- 
ernment and  impose  it,  as  an  imperative  duty,  on 
all  railway  carriers,  to  accept  and  transport,  at  the 
compensation  established  by  law  and  according  to 
the  statute  and  departmental  regulations,  all  mails, 
mail  supplies,  postal  clerks,  and  inspectors  on 
duty,  with  sufficient  sanctions  to  enforce  compli- 
ance. Unless  such  legislation  be  provided,  no 
success,  upon  any  plan  can  be  assured.  The  right 
to  this  acquiescence  in  the  purposes  of  the  Govern- 
ment is  undeniable.  The  absence  of  means  to 
compel  acknowledgment  by  obedience  constitutes 
a  menace  to  the  business  of  the  country  which 
ought  not  to  continue." 

And  yet  this  menace  still  continues  and  the 
railroads  continue  to  charge  the  Government  for 
the  annual  rental  of  its  travelling  post-offices  far 
more  than  it  would  cost  to  build  them.  In  the 
last  fifteen  years,  the  Government  has  paid  out  for 
the  use  of  these  cars  over  $30,000,000,  of  which, 
according  to  the  estimate  made  by  Mr.  Vilas,  in 
1887,  $1,500,000  a  year  at  least,  or  a  total  of  full 
$22,500,000  has  been  absolutely  wasted,  and  this 
in  addition  to  the  other  millions  paid  out  for 
so-called  special  facilities  and  for  unnecessary 
steamship  subsidies,  to  say  nothing  of  the  extrava- 
gant sums  appropriated  for  ordinary  railway  mail- 
service.  And  yet  the  deficiency  in  the  postal  ser- 
vice is  attributed  to  the  cent  a  pound  rate  on 


68  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

second-class  matter.  Unquestionably  there  will 
be  a  deficiency  in  the  business  of  the  Post-office  so 
long  as  the  Government  pays  the  railroads  eight 
cents  a  pound  for  doing  only  about  half  the  ser- 
vice for  which  it  receives  one  cent.  But  is  it 
necessary  to  pay  railway  managers  this  enormous 
tax  ?  Which  is  the  Government  of  this  country, 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  or  the  members 
of  the  Joint  Traffic  Association,  or  is  Congress  but 
the  agent  of  this  railway  association  ? 

Certain  of  the  trans-continental  roads  have  been 
battling  before  the  United  States  Courts  for  the 
last  nine  years  for  the  legal  right  to  carry  foreign 
books,  carpets,  cutlery,  etc.,  from  New  Orleans  to 
San  Francisco  for  eight  tenths  of  a  cent  a  pound 
and  as  we  have  seen,  they  have  just  gained  their 
suit.  Would  these  railroads  have  made  the  long 
fight  for  these  rates  if  they  had  not  been  profit- 
able ?  But  if  they  can  carry  these  foreign  products 
across  the  continent  for  eight  tenths  of  a  cent  a 
pound,  then  surely  they  can  carry  Government 
mail-bags,  average  hauls  of  442  miles  for  very  much 
less  money.  Five  tenths  of  a  cent  a  pound,  ten 
dollars  a  ton  would  be  a  large  payment  for  such  a 
service.  The  probabilities  are  that  with  the  Gov- 
ernment ownership  of  postal  cars,  the  business 
could  be  done  at  a  very  much  lower  rate.  The 
conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  seems  to  be  that 
the  real  governing  powers  of  a  country  are  the 
powers  that  determine  its  public  transportation 
taxes. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  69 


CHAPTER  III. 

DISTANCE  A  FALSE  BASIS  FOR  THE  DETERMINATION 
OF  RAILWAY  RATES. 

THE  evil  in  the  present  condition  of  the  Ameri- 
can railway  world  is  almost  as  much  in  the  principle 
on  which  transportation  taxes  (local  taxes)  are  de- 
termined, as  in  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  private 
corporations  by  whom  these  taxes  are  farmed.  The 
ton-mile,  passenger-mile  basis  of  rates,  says  Mr. 
Haines,  late  president  of  the  American  Railway 
Association,  is  fallacious,  misleading,  untrue,  and 
without  practical  value  to  the  railway  superin- 
tendent or  railway  manager.  The  local  passenger 
rate  is  lost  sight  of  when  competition  or  commuta- 
tion or  excursions  are  to  be  considered,  and  the 
rate  per  ton-mile  is  the  last  thing  thought  of  in 
making  freight  tariffs,  and  finally  he  concludes  his 
notable  address,  delivered  in  New  York,  October 
14,  1891,  with  the  statement  that  he  has  sought  to 
impress  his  audience  with  the  absurdities  of  the 
ton-mile,  passenger-mile  basis  of  rates,  and  the  in- 
justice to  railway  managers  of  using  such  a  basis 
for  measuring  their  operations  or  criticising  their 
management.  It  is  but  fair  to  add  that,  in  this 


70  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

address,  Mr.  Haines  is  discussing  through  traffic. 
We  all  know  that,  in  local  business,  ton-miles  and 
passenger-miles  continue  to  be  measured  out  with 
the  greatest  care  and  with  the  result  that,  instead 
of  one  uniform  tax,  for  each  class  of  service  for  all 
distances  within  a  railway  system,  there  are  millions 
of  different  taxes  levied  even  on  single  systems.  It 
is  said  that  there  are  thirty  million  different  rates 
on  the  London  and  Northwestern  Railway  system 
/  of  England. 

I  This  mileage  system  is  followed  not  because  there 
is  any  equity  in  it,  not  because  distance  measures 
the  real  cost  of  the  conveyance  of  persons  or  of 
property  by  railway,  but  because  it  does  fairly 
measure  the  cost  by  the  old  methods  of  transporta- 
tion in  vogue  before  the  invention  of  the  railway — 
the  cost  of  transportation  on  foot  or  on  horseback 
— and  because  it  thus  enables  the  railway  manager 
to  so  guage  his  non-competitive  rates  that  the 
people  will  find  it  just  a  little  cheaper  and  a  little 
quicker,  just  a  little  more  convenient,  and  a  little 
more  comfortable,  to  travel  by  train  than  to  walk 
or  to  hitch  up  their  teams.  A  more  effective  means 
for  exacting  all  the  traffic  will  bear  and  for  keeping 
the  districts  through  which  the  railways  pass  in 
their  original  human  burden-bearer  and  ox-team 
condition  could  not  be  devised.  Our  local  railway 
tariffs  are  usually  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent, 
higher  than  their  through  tariffs,  and  they  are  ac- 
companied by  a  correspondingly  poorer  service. 
One  of  the  friends  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven, 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  Jl 

&  Hartford  Railway  Company  testified  before  the 
Railway  Committee  of  the  Connecticut  Legislature, 
in  the  winter  of  1895,  that  he  could  wish  for  no 
greater  punishment  for  the  managers  of  that  road 
in  the  next  world  than  to  be  obliged  to  travel  con- 
tinually on  their  own  accommodation  trains. 

•But  there  is  another  evil  connected  with  this 
mileage  system  of  rates  that  is  also  worthy  of  the 
most  thoughtful  consideration.  The  longer  the 
track  between  stations,  the  more  the  miles  to  be 
taxed  to  local  traffic.  The  possible  profit  to  be  ex- 
torted from  this  traffic  by  running  trains  over  long 
and  crooked  lines,  leads  to  a  waste  of  capital  at  the 
outset,  by  encouraging  the  construction  of  unneces- 
sary mileage  in  the  building  of  new  roads,  and  to  a 
perpetual  waste  of  time  and  of  labor  in  the  opera- 
tion of  the  roads,  by  discouraging  the  cutting  out 
of  unnecessary  miles  in  old  lines. 

The  mileage  taxes  levied  on  the  way  traffic  of  the 
New  York  Central  bring  in  a  revenue  so  much  be- 
yond the  cost  of  running  the  trains  that  the  com- 
pany could  not  afford  to  allow  their  road  to  be 
shortened  by  several  miles,  even  if  the  work  was 
done  at  the  expense  of  the  State.  They  would  lose 
an  opportunity  to  levy  unnecessary  taxes  upon  way 
travel  alone,  amounting  to  at  least  forty  cents  a 
train-mile  for  every  mile  of  track  cut  out  of  their 
main  line.  The  fifty  way  travellers  on  the  average 
passenger  train  on  the  main  line  not  only  pay  a 
profit  of  forty  cents  a  train-mile  on  the  cost  of  their 
own  transportation,  but  also  pay  the  entire  cost  of 


72  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  transportation  of  the  fifty  through  passengers 
on  the  train.  And  this  business  of  taxing  way 
traffic  is  ordinarily  so  profitable  that,  according  to 
the  highest  railway  authority,  it  is  rather  worse 
than  money  thrown  away  for  any  average  road  to 
spend  money  in  shortening  its  line.  The  only  class 
of  road  that  can  afford  to  shorten  its  lines  is  that 
on  which  there  is  a  great  through  business  and 
very  little  way  traffic.  A  large  non-competitive 
business  alone  may  entirely  neutralize  the  pecuniary 
value  to  the  company  of  saving  distance.1 

Bearing  in  mind  these  facts,  it  is  almost  amusing 
to  recall  the  lament  of  Mr.  Depew  over  the  decay 
of  the  small  towns  and  the  ruin  of  the  small  deal- 
ers in  the  districts  through  which  the  railroads  run, 
and  the  concentration  of  business  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  great  dealers  at  those  terminals.  The  real  won- 
der is  that,  under  the  present  condition  of  things, 
any  kind  of  business  in  which  transportation  plays 
an  important  part  continues  to  be  done  anywhere 
except  at  the  terminals,  and  that  any  business  can 
exist  except  it  be  in  the  hands  of  a  trust  big  enough 
to  meet  the  railway  king  on  equal  terms. 

Verily,  if  these  be  the  results  of  determining 
transportation  taxes  according  to  distance,  then 
there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  soundness  of  the 
conclusion  "  that  as  a  matter  of  purely  public  policy 
— that  is  to  say,  if  the  interests  of  the  railways  were 
identical  with  the  interests  of  the  community  as  a 

1  A.  M.  Wellington's  Economic  Theory  of  Railway  Location, 
pp.  234-236. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  73 

whole, — railway  rates  would  be  the  same  for  all 
distances."  1 

But  this  mileage  system  of  railway  rates  is  not 
only  opposed  to  the  public  interest  ;  it  is  equally 
opposed  to  the  real  interests  of  those  who  have 
built  the  railroads,  and  it  is  also  opposed  to  com- 
mon sense  and  to  right  reason.  "  For,  since  the  real 
service  rendered  is  the  transportation  of  persons 
and  property  from  one  terminus  to  another,  the 
precise  length  of  track  should  have  no  more  effect 
upon  the  price  paid  than  the  precise  amount  of 
curvature,  or  the  rise  and  fall,  and  much  less  than 
the  rate  of  the  ruling  grades  ;  all  should  be  con- 
sidered or  none  should  be. 

"  Not  one  single  item  of  railway  expenditure,  large 
or  small,  not  even  fuel  or  wear  and  tear  of  wheels, 
varies  in  direct  ratio  to  distance,  or  in  anything  like 
direct  ratio,  and  more  than  one  half  of  them  are 
not  a  whit  affected  thereby.  Grades,  curvatures, 
cost  of  construction,  terminal  expenses,  volume  of 
traffic,  whether  the  cars  return  full  or  empty,  all 
these  have  much  more  to  do  with  the  cost  of  ser- 
vice than  the  mere  distance  transported."3 

It  is  estimated  that  it  costs  thirty  per  cent,  more 
to  haul  a  train  over  a  continuous  II*— 30'  curve, 
one  mile  long,  than  over  a  mile  of  tangent.  The 
same  engine  will  not  haul  half  as  heavy  a  load  on  a 
twenty-six  feet  grade  as  on  a  level  ;  on  a  fifty-two 
feet  grade,  about  a  fourth  as  much  ;  on  an  eighty 

1  Wellington,  p.  197. 

2  Wellington. 


74  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

feet  grade,  about  one  fifth,  and  on  a  grade  of  one 
hundred  and  five  feet,  a  light  American  engine  will 
hardly  draw  an  eighth  of  its  level  load,  and  the 
heaviest  engine  hardly  one  sixth.  The  mere  stop- 
ping and  starting  of  a  train  running  thirty  miles  an 
hour,  wastes  power  enough  to  haul  it  two  miles, 
and  the  cost  of  the  stop  of  the  average  train  is  esti- 
mated at  about  forty  cents.  In  extreme  cases — 
such  as  the  Manhattan  Elevated  Road  of  New 
York,  where  there  are  stations  nearly  every  three 
eighths  of  a  mile,  three  fourths  of  the  coal  con- 
sumed and  one  fourth  of  the  time  occupied,  is  due 
to  stops.  It  is  said  that  even  on  express  trains  one 
fourth  of  the  time  between  termini  is  thus  lost.  The 
New  York  Limited  loses  fifty-five  minutes  in  its 
eight  regular  stops  between  New  York  and  Chi- 
cago, and  Wellington  says  that,  including  slowing 
up  through  towns  and  yards,  stops  at  crossings, 
etc.,  it  loses  not  less  than  three  hours  out  of  twenty- 
four.  With  most  fast  trains  the  loss  of  time  due  to 
these  causes  would  be  twice  as  much. 

Even  the  cost  of  the  road  itself  is  not  propor- 
tioned to  distance.  A  single  mile  of  tunnel,  or 
through  a  crowded  city,  often  costs  more  than  a 
score  of  miles  in  the  open  country.  Some  roads, 
moreover,  have  more  miles  of  siding  at  stations 
than  of  main  track  between.  Thus  the  New  York 
Central  and  Lake  Shore  Roads,  in  1893,  had  1090 
miles  of  siding,  962  of  main  line  ;  the  Erie,  557 
miles  of  siding,  460  of  main  line,  etc.  The  cost  of 
the  terminals  at  New  York  is  estimated  at  $35,000,- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  75 

ooo — enough  to  build  1000  miles  of  main  line  at 
$35,000  a  mile — and  yet  these  terminals  are  said  to 
be  smaller  in  extent  and  less  expensive  per  head 
than  at  most  important  cities,  and  very  much 
smaller  than  at  some  of  them.  The  annual  ter- 
minal expenses  at  New  York  are  estimated  at 
$10,000,000,  and  to  meet  them  there  is  a  fixed 
terminal  charge  of  four  or  five  cents  per  100 
pounds,  or  from  20  to  25  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
charge  from  Chicago  to  New  York.  Twenty-eight 
per  cent,  of  the  locomotives  in  service  in  the  State 
of  New  York  are  switching  engines,  and  it  is  esti- 
mated that  over  one  fifth  of  the  motive  power  of 
the  entire  railway  service  is  expended  in  switching, 
and  this  independent  of  the  switching  of  regular 
trains  in  transit. 

Thus,  with  every  step  of  our  investigations,  the 
absurdity  of  the  idea  that  distance  is  an  important 
factor  in  the  cost  of  railway  traffic  becomes  more 
and  more  apparent.  It  is  a  very  small  factor  even 
in  the  cost  of  the  movement  of  railway  trains. 
What  folly  to  pretend  that  railway  managers  have 
any  right  to  use  it  as  a  means  for  subjecting  the 
movements  of  persons  and  of  property  on  the  rail- 
ways to  their  wills.  Were  railway  charters  granted 
in  order  to  enable  the  public  to  receive  the  utmost 
possible  benefit  from  this  greatest  of  all  inventions, 
or  was  it  intended  that  railway  fares  and  freight 
rates  should  always  be  measured  out  according  to 
the  cost  of  conveyance  by  human  burden-bearers 
and  by  ox-teams,  or  even  by  stage-coach  ? 


76  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

The  essential  facts  to  be  considered  in  the  rail- 
way business  are  as  follows  : — When  once  a  rail- 
road is  built,  trains  must  run  and  it  makes  very 
little  difference  in  the  cost  of  the  business  whether 
the  cars  go  full  or  empty,  or  whether  a  locomotive 
runs  alone  or  with  a  long  and  heavily  laden  train 
behind  it  ;  neither  does  it  make  a  measurable  dif- 
ference in  the  cost,  whether  a  part  of  the  train-load 
is  left  at  one  station  or  at  another.  Are  the  rates 
so  high  that  only  a  royal  personage  can  purchase  a 
ticket  !  Then  that  single  individual  must  bear 
the  entire  expense  of  the  train  that  carries  him0 
On  the  other  hand,  are  the  rates  so  low  that  a  hun- 
dred persons  can  avail  themselves  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  travel,  then  each  traveller  will  be  obliged 
to  pay  but  a  hundredth  part  of  the  cost  of  the 
train,  and  that  cost  will  be  increased  only  by  the 
interest  and  wear  and  tear  of  one  additional  car 
during  the  trip.  The  expense  of  moving  the  train 
wiH  be  practically  the  same  in  either  case,  and  it 
will  hardly  make  a  whit  difference  whether  one 
passenger  or  all  the  passengers  leave  the  train,  at 
the  first  station  at  which  it  stops,  or  go  through  to 
the  end  of  the  journey.  "  When  once  a  train  has 
started  from  Boston  to  San  Francisco,  there  is  not 
a  man  living  can  tell  the  difference,  in  the  cost  of 
running  that  train,  whether  a  passenger  gets  off  at 
the  first  station  out  of  Boston,  or  goes  through  to 
the  Golden  Gate.  At  every  station  some  pas- 
sengers will  leave  the  train,  others  will  take  their 
places.  One  traveller,  in  a  thousand  perhaps,  will 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  JJ 

go  the  whole  journey.  There  will  always  be  room 
for  him." 

The  fastest  through  train  in  the  country,  in  its 
trip  of  a  thousand  miles  from  New  York  to  Chicago, 
makes,  on  an  average,  one  stop  in  every  125  miles, 
and  the  principle  which  is  applicable  on  the  slowest 
way-train,  is  equally  applicable  here.  The  cost  of 
carrying  a  traveller  who  goes  but  125  miles  is  prac- 
tically the  same  as  that  of  the  traveller  who  goes  the 
full  thousand  miles.  The  short-distance  traveller 
who  occupies  a  seat  at  the  beginning  of  the  journey 
prevents  the  occupation  of  his  seat  by  a  through 
traveller,  and  there  is  a  fair  chance  that  as  a  result 
of  his  short  occupation  his  seat  may  remain  empty 
for  the  rest  of  the  trip. 

It  is  possible  that  the  presence  of  a  half  dozen 
short-distance  travellers  at  the  opening  of  a  trip  of 
the  New  York  Limited  Express,  may  cause  the 
haulage  of  an  additional  car  not  only  for  125  miles, 
but  for  the  whole  thousand  miles,  and  that  with 
very  few  passengers.  The  train  is  run  for  the 
accommodation  of  all  its  occupants,  wherever 
they  board  it  and  wherever  they  leave  it,  and  all 
should  pay  the  same  short-distance  tax. 

The  cost  of  railway  transportation  per  ton  and 
per  passenger  is  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber of  tons  and  of  passengers  transported  upon  a 
railway  system,  regardless  of  the  distance  they  are 
carried.  It  is  said  that  if  an  English  locomotive 
runs  with  a  load  of  fifty  tons  behind  it,  it  consumes 
twenty  pounds  of  coal  per  mile  ;  when  it  is  hauling 


78  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

•  600  tons,  it  burns  perhaps  sixty  pounds,  so  that 
between  no  load  at  all  and  a  long  and  heavily 
laden  train  the  variation  in  locomotive  expenses 
is  only  the  cost  of  forty  pounds  of  coal  per  mile, 
say  six  cents  (six  cents  per  mile  for  the  haulage  of 
eighteen  cars  each  weighing  with  its  load  thirty 
tons).  Mr.  Wellington  estimates  that  the  addition 
of  thirty  tons  dead  weight  (and  live  weight  is  no 
heavier  than  dead  weight)  to  a  train  of  five  cars 
will  not  increase  the  cost  for  coal,  in  this  country, 
over  one  cent  a  mile,  and  since  all  the  passengers 
that  can  be  squeezed  into  five  cars  will  not  weigh 
thirty  tons,  it  therefore  follows  that  the  variation 
in  the  haulage  cost  of  a  five-car  train  carrying  300 
or  400  passengers  and  an  empty  five-car  train  is 
but  one  cent  a  mile. 

Professor  Hadley  says  that  on  any  line  where  a 
good  canal  can  run,  a  railroad  can  handle  a  net 
train-load  of  600  tons,  at  a  direct  expense  for  fuel, 
trainmen,  and  train  repairs  (that  is  for  expenses  due 
to  distance)  of  not  over  forty  cents,  and  sometimes 
as  low  as  thirty  cents  a  mile,  or  one  twentieth  to  one 
fifteenth  of  a  cent  a  mile  per  ton.  In  other  words, 
the  cost  of  the  average  haul  of  the  country,  126  miles, 
in  train-loads  of  600  tons,  on  such  roads  as  the  New 
York  Central,  is  not  over  seven  to  nine  cents  a  ton, 
and  with  loads  up  to  the  capacity  of  our  large  loco- 
motives (1800  tons  or  more,  on  the  New  York 
Central)  the  cost  per  ton  and  per  passenger  due  to 
distance  is  even  less  than  these  figures. 

Taking   the    entire   expenses    of    an   eight-car 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  79 

passenger  train,  on  the  New  York,  New  Haven 
&  Hartford  Railroad  main  line,  at  $1.00  a  mile  (the 
cost  of  the  average  passenger  train  on  that  road 
for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1893,  was  less  than 
ninety-eight  cents  a  mile),  the  total  cost  for  a  100- 
mile  trip,  is  $100,  or  less  than  twenty  cents  for 
each  of  its  520  seats,  for  the  whole  distance.  The 
average  trip  of  the  traveller  on  this  road,  however, 
is  but  17.04  miles,  so  that  the  average  train  empties 
itself  five  and  eight-tenth  times  on  a  loo-mile 
journey,  and  therefore  the  actual  seating  capacity  of 
an  eight  car  way-train  on  such  a  trip  is  over  3000, 
and  the  cost  of  each  seat  for  the  average  ride 
of  17.04  miles,  some  of  the  travellers  going  the  whole 
distance,  others  but  from  one  station  to  the  next, 
is  less  than  three  and  one  third  cents,  and  even 
if  the  train  is  but  half  filled,  the  cost  per  pas- 
senger per  trip  is  but  seven  cents.  But  the 
modern  locomotive  can  haul  a  twelve-car  train 
on  this  road  at  almost  the  same  speed  that  it 
can  haul  eight  cars,  and  with  an  additional 
expense,  including  extra  brakemen,  and  use 
of  the  extra  cars,  of  certainly  less  than  $15.00 
for  the  loo-mile  trip,  and  these  cars  will  afford 
accommodation  for  1500  more  passengers,  for  the 
average  1 7-mile  ride,  at  a  cost  to  the  railroad  of  less 
than  one  cent  for  each  seat. 

These  figures  are  astonishing  enough,  but  the 
following  statement  made  by  the  conservative  Wil- 
liam M.  Acworth,  the  highest  railway  authority  in 
England,  goes  far  beyond  my  estimates.  Mr.  Ac- 


8O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

worth  says  that  if  a  passenger  who  would  otherwise 
have  staid  at  home,  were  induced  to  go  from  London 
to  Glasgow,  by  the  offer  of  a  first-class  ticket  for 
three-pence  (six  cents),  the  company  would,  unless 
indeed  there  was  no  first-class  seat  available  on  the 
train,  secure  a  net  profit  of  two  and  three-quarter 
pence  (five  and  one-half  cents)  for,  the  remaining 
farthing  (one  half  a  cent)  is  an  ample  allowance 
for  the  cost  of  haulage.  The  exact  figures,  in  de- 
tail, are  as  follows  :  For  coal,  three  sixteenths  of 
a  penny,  the  remaining  one  sixteenth  of  a  penny  is 
more  than  sufficient  to  pay  for  the  extra  oil,  and 
stores,  and  water  consumed,  making  a  total  of  one 
fourth  of  an  English  penny  or  one  half  of  an  Amer- 
can  cent.  Add,  say,  another  half  a  cent  for  the  wear 
and  tear  of  the  seat  and  you  have  one  cent.  Up 
to  the  capacity  of  the  railway  trains  of  a  country, 
the  cost  of  the  additional  passengers  who  could  be 
induced  to  travel  by  low  fares,  would  not  be  over 
one  cent  for  a  distance  of  410  miles.1 

Taking  the  average  American  train,  at  two  cars, 
(sixty-five  seats  in  a  car)  its  forty-four  occupants, 
in  1895,  could  have  taken  eighty-six  friends  along 
with  them,  for  a  4io-mile  ride,  at  an  additional  ex- 
pense, to  the  railroads,  of  eighty-six  cents.  If  there 
were  three  cars  in  the  average  train  of  1895,  the 
151  vacant  seats  could  have  been  occupied,  during 
such  a  journey,  at  a  cost  to  the  railroads  of  $1.51. 

The  world  will  realize,  some  day,  the  truth  of 

1  See  "  Taxes  on  Transport,"  Nineteenth  Century  Magazine, 
January,  1892. 


AND   PASSENGER  POST.  8 1 

the  statement  made  in  1849  by  Mr.  Palfrey  with 
reference  to  the  Post-office,  namely,  that  in  business 
of  such  a  character,  the  cost  of  running  the  machinery 
is  practically  the  same  whatever  be  the  volume  of  the 
traffic.  This  truth  is,  indeed,  most  wonderfully 
exemplified  in  the  railroad  experience  of  many  dif- 
ferent countries  during  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

The  following  is  from  my  article,  "  Equality  of 
Opportunity — How  Can  We  Secure  It  ?  "  in  the 
Arena  of  December,  1895  : 

"  In  i88i,the  third-class  fares  on  the  East  India 
Railway  were  reduced  from  about  three  fourths  of 
a  cent  to  half  a  cent  a  mile,  and  *  From  the  very 
first  the  effect  of  the  reduced  fare  was  clearly 
seen,  not  only  in  the  increased  numbers  and  in  the 
slow  but  steady  increase  of  receipts,  but  also  in  the 
manifest  advantage  which  it  gave  to  good's  traffic, 
in  facilitating  the  movements  of  smaller  traders.' 

"  In  1892,  the  net  earnings  of  this  road,  with 
fares  of  but  two  and  a  half  pies  (five  twelfths  of 
a  cent)  a  mile,  were  nine  and  sixty-two  hun- 
dredths  per  cent,  on  its  capital.  The  Madras  road 
has  lately  adopted  a  rate  of  two  pies  (about  one 
third  of  a  cent)  a  mile,  and  with  very  encouraging 
results.  It  is  believed  that  for  the  carriage  of  food, 
— grains,  minerals,  and  the  lowest  class  of  passen- 
gers, the  Indian  rates  are  the  lowest  in  the  world. 
'  At  the  same  time,'  says  Horace  Bell,  the  consult- 
ing engineer  of  the  State  railways  of  India,  '  it  is 
by  no  means  to  be  assumed  that  rates  and  fares 
have  reached  their  lowest  remunerative  level.  In- 


82  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

deed,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that,  in  the  class 
of  goods  above  mentioned,  and  in  third-class  pas- 
sengers, further  reductions  are  to  be  made  in  the 
near  future,  and  on  sufficiently  profitable  con- 
ditions. 

'  The  statistics  of  the  railways  which  serve  the 
poor  and  populous  districts  point  to  the  certainty 
that,  with  large  numbers  (and  large  numbers 
always  follow  low  fares),  low  speeds,  and  properly 
fitted  vehicles,  passengers  could  be  carried  at  one 
pie  (one  sixth  of  a  cent)  a  mile,  and  leave  a  profit 
of  20  to  30  per  cent.  ;  the  cost  of  carriage  (per  ton 
of  freight  and  per  passenger)  is  a  quantity  varying 
with  the  volume  of  traffic,  and  it  may  be  found 
that  an  even  lower  rate  is  possible.'  "  (Mr.  Bell 
puts  the  value  of  the  pie  at  one  twelfth  of  an 
English  penny,  one  sixth  of  a  cent.) 

And  high  speed,  up  to  the  capacity  of  a  locomo- 
tive for  hauling  its  load,  is  far  more  profitable  than 
low  speed,  for  the  higher  the  speed  of  the  trains, 
the  greater  the  possible  use  of  the  whole  equip- 
ment. The  cost  of  the  extra  fuel  and  water  re- 
quired is  hardly  worth  considering  in  comparison 
with  the  extra  service  which  the  trainmen  and 
trains  are  thus  enabled  to  render.  "  Twenty-five 
years  ago,"  says  J.  M.  McConnell,  Superintendent 
of  motive  power  on  the  Union  Pacific  Road,  "  with 
a  schedule  of  twenty-two  miles  an  hour,  it  would 
have  been  considered  an  impossibility  for  an 
engine  to  haul  ten  cars  on  a  schedule  of  forty 
miles  an  hour,  yet  it  is  now  done  every  day  and 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  83 

these  (modern)  engines  maintain  a  speed  of  fifty- 
five  miles  an  hour  between  stations,  with  ten  cars. 
In  1894,  it  cost  the  Union  Pacific  Road  $1,040,000 
less  to  haul  their  freight  cars  than  it  did,  compar- 
ing the  same  number,  in  1890 — all  due  to  the 
increased  service  of  locomotives  and  to  no  other 
cause."  The  average  train-load  of  this  road  in- 
creased from  15.86  cars  in  1890  to  21.88  cars  in 
1895,  and  this  increase  of  load  was  attended  by  a 
decrease  of  locomotive  expenses  from  26.45  cents 
a  mile  to  25.03  cents,  and  by  a  consequent  decrease 
in  the  cost  of  hauling  a  loaded  freight  car  from 
3.17  cents  a  mile  in  1890  to  2.01  cents  in  1895. 
The  cost  per  mile  of  hauling  freight  cars  on  the 
Soo  Line  in  1895  was  but  one  cent.  In  other 
words  the  actual  cost  of  distance  in  the  handling 
of  freight  on  the  Soo  Line,  in  carloads  of  twenty 
tons,  in  1895,  was  but  six  and  three-tenths  cents  per 
ton  for  the  average  haul  of  the  United  States,  126 
miles.  The  secret  of  low  cost  of  railway  traffic 
is,  large  train-loads  moved  quickly  to  their  des- 
tination and  trains  kept  in  constant  use.1 

The  lowest  average  load  of  the  passenger  trains 
of  the  Indian  roads  is  over  126.  The  Madras  road 
carries  more  than  260  in  its  average  train,  and  the 
Bengal,  Northwestern,  &  Tirhoot  road  more  than 
290.  With  average  passenger  trips  of  ten  miles 
(the  average  trip  on  the  Providence  &  Worcester 
road  of  Massachusetts  is  but  8.39  miles,  and  on  the 
New  York  &  New  England  it  is  but  11.84  miles), 
1  Railway  Review,  for  1896,  pp.  32,  116,  and  173. 


84  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  trains  of  the  New  York  Central  would  empty 
themselves,  on  an  average,  ten  times  in  a  100- 
mile  journey,  and  with  average  loads  of  300,  these 
trains,  at  five-cent  fares  (one  half  a  cent  a  mile 
for  the  average  trip)  would  earn  $150  in  a  100- 
mile  journey,  or  $1.50  a  train  mile.  An  average 
train-load  of  two  hundred  would  yield  $1.00  a  mile 
and  this,  with  twenty  cents  a  mile  from  express 
and  mail  matter,  would  bring  the  earnings  up  to 
$1.20  against  the  actual  earnings  of  the  average 
passenger  trains  of  this  road,  for  the  year  ending 
June  30,  1894,  of  less  than  $1.19  per  mile.  And 
Mr.  McConnell's  experience  teaches  us  that  such 
trains  might  be  hauled  at  even  less  cost  than  the 
present  trains. 

In  thinly  settled  Russia,  under  the  new  tariff  of 
December,  1894,  the  third-class  fare  for  short  dis- 
tances, .666  of  a  mile  to  106.8  miles,  is  but  little 
over  three  fourths  of  a  cent  a  mile,  and  for  longer 
distances  the  fares  are  still  lower.  A  passenger 
can  travel  106  miles  for  eighty-one  cents,  and  464 
miles,  or  farther  than  from  New  York  to  Buffalo, 
for  $2.32.  For  a  trip  of  1989  miles,  the  fare  is  but 
$5.95,  and  our  Consul  at  St.  Petersburgh  says  that, 
if  travel  increases,  as  it  has  increased  under  pre- 
vious reductions  of  fares,  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  these  low  rates  will  not  only  be  a  great 
benefit  to  the  Russian  people,  but  will  also  prove 
profitable  to  the  railways. 

Special  workingmen's  trains  have  been  running 
for  many  years  on  the  railroads  of  Belgium,  on 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  8$ 

which  it  is  possible  to  buy  weekly  tickets  to  and 
from  their  work,  six  days  in  a  week. 

3  miles  from  their  homes  for  21  cents  a  week. 

/-  it    ti    it    it    it     ti   it  11 

12  "    "    "    "    "  37  "   "  " 

o    II        II        II         II        tl          tt     U     tt 

lo  41 

It       tl       II        II       It         tl     II    (t 

24  45 

s    it       tl      II       II      II        «'    tl    tt 
ll      tl      II       II       II        It    II    It 

42  57 

Consul  Wilson  of  Brussels,  in  his  report  of  1883, 
earnestly  advocated  the  running  of  such  trains  on  our 
roads,  saying  that  these  trains  had  enabled  vast  num- 
bers of  workingmen  to  live,  at  more  moderate  rates, 
outside  the  dense  centres  of  industry  where  they 
were  employed,  while  at  the  same  time,  they  largely 
increased  the  profits  of  the  roads.  So  well  satis- 
fied are  the  Belgian  authorities  with  their  policy  of 
running  their  railroads  for  the  encouragement  of 
the  material  industries  of  the  country  and  for  the 
convenience  of  the  public,  rather  than  for  the  pay- 
ment of  large  dividends,  that  some  two  years  ago, 
they  commenced  selling  passenger  tickets  good  for 
fifteen  days  for  any  distance  over  the  entire  system 
of  government  roads,  some  2500  miles,  at  the  fol- 
lowing rates  : 

50  francs  or  $10.00  for  a  first-class  ticket. 
38      "        "       7.60   "    "  second-class  ticket. 
25      "        "       5.00   "    "  third-class  ticket. 

"  The  effect  of  the  liberal  railway  policy  of  Bel- 


86  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

guim  has  been  to  make  it  a  most  attractive  coun- 
try for  working  people.  Although  one  of  the  most 
thickly  settled  districts  in  the  world,  the  immigra- 
tion into  Belguim,  since  the  inauguration  of  her 
progressive  railway  policy  has  steadily  exceeded 
the  emigration. 

"  Side  by  side  with  the  state  administration  of 
the  Belgian  roads  and  the  successive  reduction  of 
rates  and  fares,  Belgium  has  developed  a  degree  of 
prosperity  unequalled  by  any  other  nation  of  similar 
population  and  resources  in  the  world.  On  the 
other  hand,  Ireland,  suffering  under  a  system  of 
transportation  taxes  levied  by  private  corporations 
who  care  nothing  for  the  districts  through  which 
the  railroads  pass,  is  to-day  one  of  the  most  back- 
ward countries  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The 
result  of  the  present  system  is  that  rates  (railway 
rates)  prevent  the  development  of  local  resources 
— that  existing  industries  are  strangled  and  that 
profits  are  devoured  by  transit  charges.  There  is 
a  constant  reiteration  of  the  same  class  of  evidence, 
pointing  to  works  closed,  mills  stopped,  undertak- 
ings abandoned,  and  a  decrease  of  native  produc- 
tion, all  of  which  is  assigned  sometimes  partially 
and  sometimes  wholly  to  the  railway  system.  It  is 
probable  that  agriculture  suffers  most  but  all  indus- 
tries are  crushed  while  no  attempt  can  be  made  to 
establish  any  industry.  Enterprise  can  take  no 
root  in  the  country.  The  coal  and  mineral  rates 
prohibit  inland  manufactures."  1 

1  Charles  Waring,  Stale  Ownership  of  Railways. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  8/ 

The  same  experience  follows  the  same  policy 
everywhere.  Transport  taxes  high,  uncertain,  un- 
stable, discourage  trade  and  paralyze  industry  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  transport  taxes  low,  certain,  stable, 
always  encourage  trade  and  stimulate  industry. 
The  people  always  respond,  almost  at  a  moment's 
notice,  to  the  opportunities  which  low  transport 
taxes  secure  to  them. 

"  During  one  of  the  trunk  line  wars,  the  passen- 
ger rates  on  all  the  lines  between  San  Francisco 
and  Chicago  were  reduced  from  $120  to  $15. 
The  result  was  that  the  big  passenger  coaches, 
having  a  capacity  of  sixty  persons,  ran  full  all  the 
time,  instead  of  three  fourths  empty,  and  the  rail- 
roads received  for  their  haul,  about  2600  miles, 
$900  per  car,  whereas  the  rate  for  a  carload  of 
cattle,  for  any  such  haul,  would,  at  the  most,  have 
been  but  $220.  'This  low  rate,  I  am  told,'  says 
Moreton  Frewin,  *  was  actually  found  profitable  to 
the  roads  and  it  stimulated  enormously  the  general 
through  business.  The  Chicago  drygoods  and 
other  houses  trebled  their  drummers,  and  every 
intervening  point,  like  Omaha,  Denver,  Salt  Lake, 
etc.,  recognized  at  once  a  great  development  of 
local  enterprises." 

The  railroads  of  to-day  would  find  $5  a  passen- 
ger, or  $300  a  car,  a  wonderfully  profitable  busi- 
ness for  such  a  trip.  It  is  indeed  probable  that 
the  cattle  rate  of  $220  a  car  would  provide  an 
ample  income  to  the  transcontinental  roads,  if  it 
were  applied  to  human  beings  for  the  trip  from 


88  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

San  Francisco  to  Chicago.  Humanity,  unlike  cat- 
tle, load  and  unload,  and  take  care  of  themselves  ; 
the  haul  of  the  cattle  car  and  of  the  passenger  car 
costs  practically  the  same  ;  if  there  be  any  differ- 
ence in  favor  of  the  cattle  car,  that  difference — in- 
cluding the  increased  cost  due  to  the  interest  and 
the  repairs  of  the  more  expensive  passenger  car — 
is  far  more  than  made  up  by  the  greater  use  of 
equipment  made  possible  by  the  greater  speed  of 
the  passenger  train. 

We  have  seen  that  a  ten-car  passenger  train  is 
capable  of  making  a  schedule  of  forty  miles  an 
hour  ;  then  such  a  train  can  certainly  make  the 
ordinary  thirty-mile  schedule  of  the  transcontinen- 
tal roads,  and  can  haul  six  hundred  passengers  from 
the  lakes  to  the  Golden  Gate  in  less  than  eighty- 
seven  hours,  earning  in  that  interval,  at  five  dollars 
a  passenger,  $3000  or  $1.15  a  train  mile  from  its 
passengers  alone.  Add  twenty  cents  a  train-mile 
from  mail  and  express  transportation,  a  low  esti- 
mate, and  you  have  a  total  of  $1.35  a  mile,  five 
cents  more  than  the  average  earnings  of  the  New 
York  Central  in  1890,  and  fifteen  cents  more  than 
those  trains  earned  in  1894.  At  $3.50  a  passenger, 
about  $220  a  car,  such  trains  would  earn,  on  a  Chi- 
cago to  San  Francisco  trip,  as  much  per  mile  as  the 
average  passenger  trains  of  the  country  earned  in 
1894,  and  twelve-car  trains  would  earn  vastly  more. 
These  calculations  are  based  on  the  expectation 
that  all  the  travellers  in  these  trains  would  take  the 
through  trip,  but  this  seldom  happens.  I  doubt  if 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  89 

the  average  trip,  even  on  such  trains,  would  be  over 
three  hundred  miles,  in  which  case  a  fifty-cent  fare, 
per  trip,  would  enable  a  car  to  earn  far  more  than 
$220,  in  the  journey  from  the  lakes  to  the  Pacific. 
Would  not  Omaha,  Denver,  Salt  Lake,  and  all  the 
other  towns  along  the  transcontinental  lines  recog- 
nize a  mighty  development  of  enterprise  under  such 
conditions  ?  And  then  suppose  these  low  passenger 
rates  to  be  accompanied  by  similar  low,  uniform, 
stable  freight  rates,  and  suppose  these  rates  to  be 
accompanied  by  a  vastly  improved  service,  what 
would  not  be  the  development  of  this  country 
under  such  government  railway  management  ? 

The  possibilities  in  this  direction  have  been  ad- 
mirably exemplified  in  the  following  cases  : 

"  More  than  thirty  years  ago  there  was  a  contest 
between  the  South  Eastern  and  the  Great  Western 
Railways  of  England,  for  the  London  and  Reading 
traffic,  that  lasted  a  year  and  a  half.  The  distance 
on  the  South  Eastern  is  sixty-seven  miles,  and  the 
company  carried  passengers  the  round  trip  134 
miles,  by  every  train,  for  seventy-five  cents,  first- 
class,  and  fifty  cents,  second-class  ;  and  at  the  half- 
yearly  meetings  the  chairman  of  the  company  said 
that  the  company  had  lost  nothing  by  the  low  fares. 
They  paid  the  same  dividends,  and  they  were  very- 
well  satisfied  to  go  on.  Nevertheless,  the  South  East- 
ern and  the  Great  Western  were  charging,  on  one  part 
of  their  lines,  about  ten  times  as  much  as  they  were 
charging  on  other  parts,  and  on  those  parts  where 
they  were  carrying  lowest,  their  profits  amounted  to 


90  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

about  two  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  on  the  cost 
of  conveyance  by  each  train. 

"  The  most  remarkable  case  of  this  character, 
however,  that  ever  happened  in  Great  Britain, 
previous  to  1865,"  says  William  Gait,  "  was  the  re- 
sult of  a  sudden  reduction  of  fares  on  the  Edin- 
burgh and  Glasgow  line,  some  ten  years  earlier,  to 
about  one-eighth  of  the  ordinary  charge.  This  was 
the  result  of  a  quarrel  with  the  Caledonian  com- 
pany. The  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  line  is  forty- 
six  miles  in  length,  and  the  regular  fares  for  the 
three  classes  respectively,  were  eight,  six,  and  four 
shillings  ;  these  were  suddenly  reduced  to  one  shil- 
ling, ninepence,  and  sixpence  (twenty-five,  eighteen, 
and  twelve  cents  for  a  forty-six  mile  trip). 

"  The  Caledonian,  of  course,  followed  suit,  carry- 
ing at  the  same  fares.  For  a  year  and  a  half  this 
contest  continued,  to  the  great  satisfaction,  no 
doubt,  of  those  two  great  Scotch  cities,  but  to  the 
serious  injury  of  the  stockholders." 

"  Those  of  the  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  line  re- 
ceived one  per  cent.  ;  of  the  Caledonia,  one-half 
per  cent,  less  dividends." 

Even  in  that  far-away  time,  it  was  proved,  by 
the  testimony  of  the  chairman  of  the  Eastern 
Counties  Railway,  that  coal  could  be  transported 
from  Peterborough  to  London,  seventy-six  miles, 
for  twenty-five  cents  a  ton,  and  the  total  cost  of 
running  a  freight  train,  carrying  190  tons  of  coal, 
was  less  than  fourteen  pence  (twenty-eight  cents)  a 
mile,  this  including  the  train's  share  in  keeping  up 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  91 

the  permanent  way  and  of  general  management 
and  office  expenses. 

But  recent  experience  in  this  country  affords, 
perhaps,  the  best  evidence  as  to  the  possibilities  of 
railway  service. 

On  the  8th  of  August,  1895,  three  excursion 
trains  were  run  over  the  Cleveland,  Canton  and 
Southern  Railroad  from  Zanesville,  Ohio,  to  Cleve- 
land and  return,  286  miles,  for  seventy-five  cents 
the  round  trip,  less  than  three-tenths  of  a  cent  a 
mile.  Each  of  these  trains  consisted  of  ten  cars, 
carrying  700  passengers.  The  receipts,  therefore, 
amounted  to  $525  per  train  trip,  $1.835  Per  train 
mile  ;  fully  seventy-five  per  cent,  more  than  the 
earnings  of  the  average  passenger  train  of  the 
country,  and  ten  per  cent,  more  than  the  earnings 
of  the  average  train  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven 
and  Hartford  Railroad  in  1890,  when  it  was  paying 
ten  per  cent,  dividends. 

These  trains  made  about  the  same  speed  as  the 
regular  trains,  and  at  very  little  more  cost.  They  had 
the  same  number  of  hands,  and  on  the  round  trip 
each  consumed  about  twenty  tons  of  coal  at  a  cost 
of,  perhaps,  ten  cents  a  passenger.  Granting  the 
cost  to  have  been  fifty  per  cent,  more  than  its  regu- 
lar trains,  $0.4719  per  train-mile,  in  1893,  the  cost 
to  the  railroad  was  but  little  over  one-tenth  of  a 
cent  a  mile  per  passenger,  or  less  than  thirty  cents 
for  the  whole  trip,  and  the  profit  on  each  passenger 
was  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent. 

As  to  freight,  the  Railroad  Gazette  tells  us  that, 


92  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

at  times,  during  the  summer  of  1895,  the  New  York 
Central  and  Hudson  River  Railroad  hauled  grain 
from  Buffalo  to  New  York,  440  miles,  for  3.96 
cents  a  hundred  pounds,  less  than  eighty  cents  a 
ton,  and  these  low  rates,  resulting  in  train-loads  of 
1800  tons,  sixty  cars  of  thirty  tons  each,  earned 
for  the  road  over  $3.24  a  train-mile,  or  more  than 
double  the  average  earnings  per  freight-train  mile 
of  the  country,  $1.55744,  in  1894,  and  far  more 
than  the  earnings  per  mile  of  its  own  average 
freight  train.  It  is  safe  to  say  that,  even  now,  grain 
can  be  transported  from  Buffalo  to  New  York  over 
the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River  Road  for 
fifty  cents  a  ton  at  a  very  handsome  profit  ;  1800 
tons  at  fifty  cents  a  ton  equals  $900.  The  cost  of 
running  the  average  freight  train  on  this  road,  in 
1893,  was  $1.38654  per  mile,  and  for  440  miles, 
$610.08,  leaving  a  profit  on  trains  of  1800  tons,  at 
fifty  cents  a  ton,  of  nearly  three  hundred  dollars 
per  train  trip. 

But  if  this  be  true  now,  what  will  not  be  possible 
with  the  new  locomotives  of  Mr.  Westinghouse, 
which  promise  to  do  the  same  amount  of  work  as 
the  present  engines,  with  but  one-eighth  the  amount 
of  fuel  ?  It  is  further  to  be  noted  that  the  simple 
addition  of  air-brakes  and  block  signals  to  the 
New  York  Central  has  nearly  doubled  the  capacity 
of  its  freight  equipment,  while  it  has  decreased  the 
number  of  brakemen  employed  on  its  through 
trains  by  fully  one-third.  Note  too  the  statement 
of  the  editor  of  the  Bond  Record  vi  February,  1896, 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  93 

that  the  pooling  of  railway  business  by  the  Joint 
Traffic  Association  has  already  reduced  the  ex- 
penses of  some  of  the  companies  from  $100,000  to 
$150,000  a  year  in  the  small  item  of  switching 
charges  alone.  We  may  also  study  the  statistics 
of  the  Consolidated  road  of  Connecticut  in  this 
connection  with  great  advantage,  and,  turning  to 
these  statistics,  we  discover  that  the  average  ton- 
nage of  its  freight  trains  of  1892  and  of  1893  might 
be  almost  doubled  without  adding  a  single  pound 
to  the  weight  of  the  train,  and  without  adding  one 
cent  to  the  cost  of  freight  transportation.  Taking 
the  average  w.eight  of  a  freight  car  at  io£  tons, 
the  average  trains  of  1892  and  1893  consisted  of 
about  290  tons  of  cars  and  no  tons  of  freight, 
total  400  tons  ;  in  1895,  of  225  tons  of  cars  and 
143.28  tons  of  freight,  total  about  369  tons.  The 
21.48  car-train  of  1895  carried  on  an  average 
33  tons  more  freight  than  the  27.6  car-train  of 

1892  and  1893,  and  yet  one-fourth  of  the  cars  of 
1895  ran  empty  and  the  loaded  cars  carried  less 
than  half  their  capacity.     If  the  rates  were  so  low 
that  the  people  could  use  the  facilities  offered,  it 
would  be  easy  to  carry  the  average  load  of  the 
train  of  1895  up  to  175  tons,  and  the  cost  of  haul- 
age, the  distance   factor  in   transportation,  would 
not  be  a  cent  more  than  for  the  27.6  car-trains  of 

1893  with  their  290  tons  of  cars  and  no  tons  of 
freight. 

If   the    additional    64    tons    were    made   up    of 
goods  in  bulk,  products  loaded  and  unloaded  by 


94  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

shippers  and  consignees,  there  would  be  no  in- 
creased cost  for  handling.  These  trains,  indeed, 
could  easily  haul  400  tons  with  scarcely  any  more 
expense  than  at  present,  and  with  such  average 
train-loads  this  Consolidated  road  would  receive 
a  far  higher  net  income  from  a  uniform,  stable  tax 
of  fifty  cents  a  ton,  regardless  both  of  distance  and 
of  classification,  than  it  now  receives  from  its  143- 
ton  trains  with  an  average  tax  of  $1.23087  per  ton. 
If  rules  were  adopted  making  freight  bills  pay- 
able in  advance,  say  by  postage  stamps,  and  limit- 
ing the  time  for  loading  and  unloading  cars  to 
twelve  hours  [milk  trains  are  unloaded  and  loaded 
at  Jersey  City  in  less  than  eight  hours,  while  in 
New  England  the  demurrage  limit  for  the  unload- 
ing and  loading  of  a  freight  car  is  eight  days],  I 
think  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  the  freight  equip- 
ment of  the  country  would  be  fully  quadrupled' in 
its  capacity  for  service,  with  the  result  that  we 
might  probably  have  a  uniform  grouped  rate  for 
the  whole  country  of  fifty  cents  a  ton  regardless  of 
classification,  and  this  fifty  cent  uniform,  stable 
rate  would  prove  far  more  profitable  than  the 
present  average  freight  rate  of  the  country,  of 
about  $1.00  per  ton  per  haul,1  made  up,  as  it  is,  of 
hundreds  of  millions  of  different  rates,  determined 
not  on  any  settled  principle,  but,  as  the  editor  of 
the  Railway  Review  says,  "  on  guesswork,  modified 
by  a  comparison,"  and  that  comparison  always  in 
favor  of  the  biggest  dealer.  The  statement  of  H. 
T.  Newcomb  in  the  North  American  Review  of 
1  This  refers  to  1894. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  95 

July,  1896,  that  the  average  freight  car  of  this 
country  now  does  little  over  twelve  full  days'  work 
in  the  course  of  a  year,  goes  far  in  the  support  of 
these  conclusions.  With  a  reasonable  system  of 
classification  it  would  seem  possible  to  reduce  the 
transportation  tax  on  coal  and  products  of  its  class 
to  twenty-five  cents  per  ton  per  haul. 

As  to  the  low  cost  at  which  freight  can  be 
handled  in  small  packages,  English  experience, 
both  past  and  present,  furnishes  us  most  valuable 
information.  As  long  ago  as  1859,  there  was  much 
parcels  delivery  in  England  by  private  carriers,  at 
rates  of  from  one  to  two  cents  a  pound.  Parcels 
under  seven  pounds  were  carried  upwards  of  sev- 
enty miles  for  twelve  cents,  and  parcels  under 
twenty-eight  pounds,  thirty-nine  miles  for  sixteen 
cents.  In  1889,  an  English  clergyman,  Henry  P. 
Dunster,  published  an  article  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  Magazine,  in  which,  after  showing  how 
English  railway  discriminations,  in  favor  of  for- 
eign agricultural  products  as  against  native  prod- 
ucts, injured  English  agriculture,  he  proposed  the 
extension  of  the  service  of  the  Post-office  to  cover 
general  produce,  at  a  rate  of  sixpence  for  packages 
up  to  fourteen  pounds  in  weight,  ninepence  for 
twenty-eight  pounds,  and  one  shilling  for  fifty-six 
pounds.  "  However,"  he  says,  "  a  uniform  charge 
of  sixpence  for  all  packages  up  to  fifty-six  pounds 
would  be  a  greater  boon,  and  I  feel  persuaded  that 
when  the  service  is  in  full  working  order  this  low 
charge  would  be  found  sufficient  to  cover  expenses 


A    GENERAL 


and  leave  a  profit.  If  the  Great  Eastern  Railway 
can  carry  three-gallon  cans  of  salt  water,  in  weight, 
I  apprehend,  much  exceeding  fifty-six  pounds  each, 
over  their  entire  system,  delivering  these  cans  within 
a  large  area  in  London  and  elsewhere,  and  collect 
all  '  empties,'  at  a  uniform  charge  of  sixpence,  is  it 
too  much  to  expect  that  the  Post-office  can  manage 
the  same  weight  at  the  same  cost  ?  For  such  a 
service  as  is  here  suggested,  small  farmers  and 
their  customers  would  be  brought  close  together. 
Farm  produce  would  be  cheaper  to  the  consumers 
and  more  remunerative  to  the  growers  ;  both  would 
be  fairly  treated.  The  poor  who  had  gardens  in 
the  country  would  be  able  to  send  away  the  fruit 
and  vegetables  which  they  had  to  spare  to  relieve 
the  wants  of  others  of  their  own  families  who  live 
in  cities  and  crowded  districts  where  fresh  fruits 
and  vegetables  are  seldom  seen." 

And  then  Mr.  Dunster  proceeds  to  suggest  the 
manufacture  of  package  cases  of  such  size  and 
shape  as  would  accommodate  both  the  consignor 
of  such  products  and  the  carrier.  These  sugges- 
tions fell,  for  the  time,  on  dull  ears,  but  to-day  they 
are  bringing  forth  fruit.  The  railroad  managers  of 
England  are,  at  last,  waking  up  to  the  fact  that 
their  power  is  in  danger.  Public  ownership  is  in 
the  air,  and  to  meet  the  demand  for  it,  and  if  pos- 
sible to  prolong  their  rule,  we  find  the  Great 
Eastern  Railway  leading  off  in  what  is  perhaps 
the  most  important  railroad  innovation  of  the 
century. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  97 

In  January  of  this  year,  1896,  this  road,  extend- 
ing over  more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  territory, 
inaugurated  an  agricultural  parcels  post,  with  the 
following  uniform  rates,  regardless  of  distance  : 
Packages  under  20  pounds,  8  cents  ;  20  to  25 
pounds,  10  cents  ;  25  to  30  pounds,  12  cents  ; 
and  so  on  up  to  60  pounds,  for  which  the  charge 
is  one  shilling  or  25  cents,  the  charges  to  be  pre- 
paid and  the  products  to  be  packed  in  boxes  of  a 
certain  shape  furnished  by  the  railroad  at  the  fol- 
lowing prices  :  2o-pound  size,  for  3  cents  ;  35- 
pound,  for  6  cents,  and  6o-pounds  for  10  cents. 

The  object  in  furnishing  the  boxes  is  twofold  : 
first  to  have  the  products  in  shape  convenient  for 
handling  and  packing  in  the  cars,  and,  second,  to 
put  an  end  to  the  handling  of  returned  "  empties." 
And  the  Great  Eastern  Railway  proposes  not  only 
to  carry  these  packages  at  these  rates  between  any 
two  of  its  non-competitive  stations,  and  on  passen- 
ger trains,  but  it  will  also,  and  without  further 
charge,  deliver  such  packages  at  the  consignee's 
domicile,  although  this  will  involve  a  haul  by 
wagon,  from  its  terminals,  of  anywhere  from  one 
to  eight  miles. 

That  this  movement  of  the  English  railways  (for 
the  other  roads  are  following  the  lead  of  the  Great 
Eastern)  will  check  the  demand  for  Government 
ownership  of  the  railways,  I  doubt  ;  but,  in  any 
case,  it  shows  what  English  railway  managers 
believe  to  be  possible  in  the  way  of  reducing  rates, 
and  in  the  way  of  public  service,  and  more  than 

7 


98  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

this,  it  is  a  great  advance  towards  the  adoption  of 
a  uniform  standard  rate,  regardless  of  distance, 
within  the  whole  English  railway  system  ;  it  is  one 
more  acknowledgment  of  the  axiomatic  truth  that 
the  postal  principle  is  the  natural  law  for  the  deter- 
mination of  railway  rates.  (By  the  way,  almost 
the  last  word  that  comes  to  us  from  England  is  the 
following  query  from  the  Colliery  Guardian : 
"  Shall  British  iron  and  steel  and  other  heavy  in- 
dustries be  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  railway 
monopoly  ? "  ) 

Evidently  the  actual  cost  of  the  transportation 
of  persons  and  of  property  by  railway  is  a  very 
small  item.  It  is  not  easy  however  to  realize  that 
the  cost  of  a  long  through  trip  and  of  a  short  way 
journey  is  practically  the  same,  and  yet  the  longest 
journey  in  a  railway  system  may  cost  less  than  the 
shortest. 

In  the  first  place,  the  through  locomotive  hauls 
a  much  heavier  train  than  the  way  locomotive,  and 
the  through  car  generally  carries  a  larger  load. 
Albert  J.  Fink  makes  the  average  load  of  the 
through  freight  car  three  times  that  of  the  way  car. 
Through  trains  have  been  run,  in  some  instances 
from  Chicago  to  New  York  over  the  high-grade 
Pennsylvania  road,  with  forty  and  forty-five  full 
loaded  cars  of  thirty  tons  each,  that  is  to  say  with 
net  loads  of  1200  and  1350  tons,  and  we  have  seen 
that,  in  1895,  trains  of  sixty  cars  of  thirty  tons 
each,  1800  tons  in  all,  were  hauled  from  Buffalo 
to  New  York  over  the  New  York  Central.  The 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  99 

average  number  of  cars  in  the  Consolidated  freight 
train  of  Connecticut,  in  1895,  was  but  21.48,  of 
which  5.51  cars  ran  empty  and  the  rest  carried  on 
an  average  less  than  nine  tons  and  only  143.28 
tons  in  all.  The  through  train  also  runs  much 
faster  than  the  way  train.  Instead  of  spending 
time  and  fuel  in  stops,  the  through  locomotive  oc- 
cupies itself  with  making  miles  between  its  distant 
terminals.  Some  of  our  through  freights  make 
over  300  miles,  and  we  have  one  or  two  passenger 
trains  that  make  1000  miles  a  day.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  the  way  freight  makes  75  miles  a  day,  and 
even  the  way  passenger  train  will  probably  average 
less  than  100  miles.  The  way  train  must  make 
three  or  four  trips  in  order  to  do  the  amount  of 
business  performed  by  the  through  train  in  one 
trip. 

But  the  average  passenger  trip  and  the  average 
haul  of  freight  will  always  be  short.  If  railway 
transportation  were  altogether  free,  even  then  the 
world  would  not  go  flying,  neither  would  any  part 
of  the  world  be  flooded  with  the  products  of  any 
other.  Under  the  best  of  circumstances,  the  aver- 
age trip  of  the  railway  traveller  of  the  United  States 
will  be  hardly  more  than  25  or  30  miles.  The 
masses  of  mankind  must  always  labor  for  their 
bread  ;  they  can  seldom  spend  time  to  go  more 
than  an  hour's  journey  from  their  homes. 
Their  places  of  labor  and  of  trade,  their  schools 
and  their  pleasure  resorts,  must  always  be  near 
at  hand.  The  great  bulk  of  the  freight  busi- 


IOO  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

ness  too  must  always  consist  in  the  exchange 
of  products  between  neighbors.  The  special 
purpose,  indeed,  for  which  railroads  are  built 
is  the  development  of  local  traffic.  "  The 
through  business,"  says  Mr.  Fink,  "  is  but  a  mere 
incident  of  a  road.  The  main  stay  of  a  road  is  or 
ought  to  be  local  traffic.  The  local  traffic  of  the 
Pennsylvania  (one  of  the  greatest  of  the  through 
lines)  from  1881  to  1885  was  ten  times  its  through 
traffic,  and  of  the  two  the  local  traffic  continues 
to  increase  much  the  more  rapidly."  From  the 
report  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  of 
1893,  it  appears  that  of  531,183,988  passenger  trips 
taken  on  the  railroads  of  this  country  in  1892, 
only  153,741  extended  across  the  continent — less 
than  one  in  3500. 

Less  than  1,000,000  tons  of  freight  passed  be- 
tween Pacfiic  Coast  points  and  points  on  or  east  of 
the  Missouri  River,  in  the  year  January,  1891,  to 
February,  1892,  while  the  total  freight  handled  by 
the  railroads  in  the  year  ending  June  30,  1891,  was 
676,608,385  tons.  As  a  mere  incident  of  railway 
business  then,  the  through  traffic  ought  to  have 
very  little  influence  in  determining  our  general 
railway  policy.  Granting,  however,  to  through 
railway  traffic  its  greatest  possible  importance,  even 
then  the  tax  levied  for  any  particular  class  of 
service  should  be  no  greater  for  the  longest  haul 
in  a  railway  system  than  for  the  shortest,  for  the 
cost  in  each  case  is  practically  the  same. 

The  question  arises,  if  the  preceding  statements 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  IOI 

be  true,  how  happens  it  that  our  private  railway 
managers  do  not  adopt  the  policy  suggested  ?  How 
happens  it  that  railway  managers  never  voluntarily 
reduce  rates  ?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  given 
in  the  rather  cynical  language  of  the  editor  of  the 
Railway  Gazette,  in  his  issue  of  June  5,  1896.  Com- 
menting upon  the  refusal  of  the  managers  of  the 
Joint  Traffic  Association  to  approve  certain  pro- 
posed excursions  from  Cleveland  to  Niagara  Falls, 
he  says  :  "  We  surmise  that  one  reason  for  the 
action  of  the  managers  is  the  feeling  that  the  roads 
can  make  just  as  much  money  at  a  little  higher  rate" 
and  the  result  is  a  hundred  per  cent,  higher  rate 
for  1896  than  for  1895.  In  the  same  line,  note  the 
statement  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  of  New 
York  of  March  16,  1896,  that  one  of  the  direct  re- 
sults of  the  Presidents'  Joint  Traffic  Association 
which  now  rules  traffic  affairs  with  an  iron  hand, 
is  to  be  the  abandonment  of  two  cent  mileage 
tickets. 

Writing  in  1892,  Van  Oss  says  that  the  transpor- 
tation taxes  levied  by  the  Southern  Pacific  Rail- 
road on  the  people  of  California  were  then  so  great 
that  California  grapes  could  not  compete  east  of 
the  Mississippi  with  those  brought  all  the  way  from 
Spain,  while  oranges  and  other  fruits  were  less 
marketable  than  they  would  be  at  lower  rates. 
Nearly  all  fruit  was  dried  or  canned  and  shipped 
round  the  Horn  to  New  York,  whence  it  was  sent 
by  rail  to  inland  points,  the  journey  of  15,000  miles 
being  frequently  cheaper  than  the  one  of  2400. 


IO2  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

The  price  of  a  passenger  ticket  from  Portland  to 
San  Francisco,  six  hundred  miles,  was  $37.50,  over 
six  cents  a  mile.  And  the  people  were  robbed  of 
their  time  as  well  as  of  their  money.  "  The  S.  P. 
trains  have  no  competitors  and  hence  pay  little  re- 
gard to  speed  ;  even  express  trains  take  things 
easy,  and  one  wonders  what  the  local  service  is 
like."  Los  Angeles  is  some  four  hundred  miles 
south  of  San  Francisco.  The  S.  P.  trains,  running 
at  about  the  rate  of  seventeen  miles  an  hour,  take 
twenty-four  hours  to  cover  this  distance,  as  against 
eight  or  nine  hours  for  a  similar  service  in  the 
East.  This  in  1892.  To-day  the  ton-mile,  pas- 
senger-mile taxes  levied  by  the  king  of  California 
upon  his  subjects  seem  to  be  at  a  point  altogether 
beyond  "  what  the  traffic  will  bear."  The  people 
are  going  back  to  horse  teams  for  the  movement  of 
their  produce.  The  Railway  Gazette  of  May  15, 
1896,  says  that  a  large  cargo  of  wool  was  recently 
carried  from  Fresno  to  San  Francisco,  two  hundred 
miles,  by  wagon.  The  teamster  was  eight  days  on 
the  way  with  his  six-horse  team,  and  yet  he  saved 
twenty-five  per  cent,  on  the  rates  charged  by  the 
S.  P.  Railroad.  He  took  a  large  load  of  freight 
on  his  return  trip. 

Returning  once  more  to  the  East  we  see  an  illus- 
tration of  the  absorption  of  the  property  of  the 
people  by  railway  magnates  in  the  case  of  Jersey 
City.  Of  the  10,325  acres  of  land  in  that  munici- 
pality, it  is  said  that  the  railroads  own  1185.  Of 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


103 


a  total  valuation  of  property  in  the  city  of  $80,- 
000,000,  $22,500,000  are  owned  by  railroads,  and 
this  does  not  include  the  passenger  depots,  which 
are  valued  at  $10,000,000.  Thus  $32,500,000  of 
ratables  are  taken  out  of  a  total  of  $80,000,000, 
leaving  the  other  $47,500,000  to  bear  almost  all  the 
burdens  of  the  maintenance  of  the  municipality. 

The  condition  of  things  in  this  country  resulting 
from  the  "  what  the  traffic  will  bear  "  system  of 
levying  taxes  upon  transportation  and  communica- 
tion by  private  individuals,  is  certainly  grave,  but 
recent  events  have  proved  that  the  people  are  not 
yet  powerless.  New  York  has  already  entered 
upon  the  enlargement  of  the  Erie  canal  as  a  means 
of  saving  its  industries  from  railway  rapacity. 
Several  of  the  States  have  passed  laws  compell- 
ing the  railroads  to  carry  bicycles  free.  Like 
straws  floating  upon  the  surface  of  a  stream, 
these  events  indicate  the  direction  of  the  current. 
A  study  of  the  following  table,  taken  from  Poor's 
Manual  of  1897,  will,  I  trust,  at  once  strengthen 
the  volume  of  this  growing  current  of  public  opinion 
and  accelerate  its  velocity. 


YEAR. 

Ave.  Train- 
load,  No. 
Passengers. 

Ave.  Earn- 
ings per 
Train-mile. 

Ave.  Pas- 
senger 
Trip. 

Ave.  Passen- 
ger Tax, 
per  Trip. 

1892 

1893 
1894 

1895 
1896 

41-93 
44-25 
41.72 
38.66 
35-67 

Cents. 
90.62 
91.70 
84.47 
79.99 
78.58 

Miles. 

23-59 
25.09 

23.87 
23.88 
24.38 

Cents. 

5°«99 
53-oo 
48.34 
49-25 
49.58 

104  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

Poor's  figures  differ  somewhat  from  those  of  the 
Interstate  Commission,  but  they  convey  the  same 
lesson. 

The  avowed  policy  of  the  New  Haven  Road — to 
tie  the  workman  to  the  soil,  not  to  allow  him  to 
work  in  one  town  and  to  live  in  another  town — this 
is  the  prevailing  policy  of  the  railway  managers  of 
the  United  States,  and  to  this  end  we  find,  nailed 
upon  the  walls  of  the  average  passenger  railroad 
station,  the  following  proclamation : 

The  regular  transport  tax  levied  on  this  road  for 
an  hour's  journey  to  and  fro  a  man's  job  and  his 
home  is  $i.  (On  some  roads  it  is  $1.50;  on  other 
roads,  $2.)  The  object  of  this  tax  is  to  prohibit  the 
use  of  this  road  to  all  individuals  who,  like  the  aver- 
age Massachusetts  farmer,  earn  but  one  dollar  a  day.1 

And  the  tax  has  its  intended  results.  It  debars 
the  use  of  the  railroads  to  the  masses  of  the  people; 
it  also,  in  a  vast  number  of  cases,  debars  stock- 
holders in  railroads  from  expected  dividends. 
Prohibitory  rates  prohibit  profits. 

"  Certainly  of  the  lines  west  of  Chicago,  and 
probably  (with  one  exception)  of  the  lines  west  of 
Buffalo  and  Pittsburgh,  there  is  not  a  single  road 
but  what  conducts  its  passenger  business  at  a  loss." 
— ("  Railroading  under  Existing  Conditions,"  R. 
R.  Review,  December  18,  1897.) 

1  Yale  Review,  May,  1897,  page  64. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  105 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    COST    OF   SERVICE    PRINCIPLE    AND    ITS  APPLI- 
CATION   TO    PUBLIC    TRANSPORTATION,   UNDER 
THE    CONTROL    OF    THE    POST-OFFICE. 

"  AN  ideal  system  of  transportation,"  says  E. 
Porter  Alexander,  formerly  one  of  the  leading 
railway  managers  of  the  South,  "  would  be  one  in 
which  each  shipper  might  sit  quietly  in  his  office 
and  contract  to  deliver  freight  at  any  town  in  the 
United  States,  by  referring  to  a  printed  tariff  which 
would  show  rates  as  uniform  as  the  rates  of  postage 
and  not  exorbitant  in  amount." 

And,  in  his  address  before  the  Congressional 
Committee,  already  referred  to,  describing  what 
the  New  York  Central  and  the  Pennsylvania  roads 
will  do,  when  their  power  has  been  extended  over 
the  whole  country,  Mr.  Depew  says  :  "  Then  the 
strong  lines  will  say  to  the  weak  lines  :  '  We  will 
see  that  you  get  your  percentage  ;  we  will  transfer 
enough  of  the  entire  consignable  freight  from  our 
lines  to  yours  to  bring  up  your  percentage,  to 
enable  you  to  support  yourselves.  If  we  cannot  do 
that,  we  will  make  a  money  pool  and  will  transfer 
sufficient  money  into  your  treasuries  to  support 


106  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

you.'  Then  when  the  great  combination  comes 
along  and  wants  special  privileges,  we  will  say  : 
*  No,  we  have  no  privileges  to  grant  ;  there  is  our 
tariff  published  in  our  office,  published  in  our 
freight  depots  and  in  our  passenger  stations.  It  is 
like  a  government  postage  stamp  •  everybody  knows 
what  it  is.  And  so  far  as  the  carriers  of  this 
country  are  concerned,  every  man  is  treated  alike. 
That  is  the  ideal  position  -toward  which  you  have 
been  legislating  ;  that  is  what  you  have  sought  to 
accomplish.' " 

Now  what  are  the  characteristics  of  the  postage 
stamp  ? 

First.  The  postage  stamp  carries  its  parcel  to  its 
destination,  whether  the  distance  be  one  mile  or 

35°°- 

Second.  Every  man  pays  the  same  price  for  his 
stamps,  whether  he  buys  one  stamp  or  10,000. 

Third.  The  postage  stamp  is  intended  to  repre- 
sent the  cost  of  the  service  rendered  ;  it  is  sold  by 
the  government,  and  the  revenues  derived  there- 
from are  distributed  by  government  officials. 

Once  give  to  railway  tariffs  the  characteristics 
of  the  postage  stamp,  and  we  shall  arrive  at  the 
ideal  position  toward  which  we  have  been  legisla- 
ting. As  yet,  however,  we  have  taken  but  a  very 
short  step  in  this  direction.  The  Interstate  Act, 
as  its  name  implies,  left  each  of  our  railway  kings 
in  complete  control  of  his  own  particular  kingdom 
— that  is  to  say,  in  control  of  the  local  traffic  of  the 
districts  through  which  the  railways  pass,  while  the 


AND  PASSENGER   POST.  1 07 

tariffs  levied  on  the  borders  of  their  respective 
kingdoms  remained  subject  to  such  terms  of  peace 
or  war  as  the  different  potentates  might  agree  upon. 

The  fourth  section  of  the  Act,  the  long  and 
short  haul  section,  made  distance  the  prime  factor 
in  the  determination  of  rates  at  non-competitive 
points,  and  allowed  it  to  be  altogether  disregarded 
between  places  not  similarly  situated. 

The  Commission  has  decided  that,  under  this 
section,  it  is  lawful  for  railway  managers  to  carry 
products  for  persons  living  at  great  terminals  for 
one-half  the  rates  levied  upon  those  living  at  inter- 
mediate stations.  Thus,  in  the  noted  Readville 
case,  the  railways  were  allowed  to  charge  eighteen 
cents  a  hundred  pounds  on  flour  from  New  York 
to  Readville,  while  the  tax  from  New  York  to 
Boston,  eight  miles  further  on,  was  but  nine  cents. 
Boston  and  other  terminals,  favored  by  nature  with 
their  location  on  the  ocean,  the  lakes,  and  on  nav- 
igable rivers,  are  thus,  by  law,/ given  this  further 
artificial  advantage  of  receiving  their  supplies  and 
sending  off  their  products  at  half  the  rates  levied 
upon  the  intervening  country.  The  result  is  to 
leave  the  country  between  terminals  almost  as  badly 
off,  so  far  as  the  cost  of  movement  is  concerned, 
as  before  the  railways  were  built.  The  local  rates 
levied  by  the  railways  in  these  cases  are,  indeed, 
only  just  enough  below  the  actual  cost  of  convey- 
ance on  foot  or  on  horseback,  by  wagon  or  by  ox- 
cart, to  keep  the  people  from  reverting  to  these 
original  methods  of  transportation. 


IO8  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

Distance,  as  I  have  said  before,  measures  very 
accurately  the  cost  of  the  old  forms  of  private  con- 
veyance, and,  by  using  distance  for  the  determina- 
tion of  local  rates,  railway  managers  are  very  suc- 
cessful in  keeping  the  districts  between  terminals 
in  the  same  condition  in  which  the  railways  found 
them. 

In  many  cases  these  intervening  districts  are,  in 
fact,  worse  off  than  they  were  in  the  olden  time, 
for  they  ran  in  debt  to  build  the  railroads  only  to 
see  their  local  enterprises  and  their  brightest  men 
driven  away  by  railway  discriminations  in  favor  of 
the  terminals. 

But  the  height  of  absurdity  in  this  business  was 
reached  when  the  majority  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  decided  that  it  was  lawful  for 
American  railway  managers  to  charge  three  or  four 
times  as  much  for  the  transportation  of  goods  from 
American  workshops  to  their  American  customers 
as  was  charged  for  the  transportation  of  similar 
goods  from  Europe  to  the  same  customers.1  This 
decision  not  only  tends  to  nullify  our  customs 
legislation  ;  it  almost  compels  the  American  manu- 
facturer, who  would  continue  to  supply  the  Ameri- 
can market,  to  move  his  plant  to  Europe  or  Asia. 

Evidently  it  would  be  a  great  step  in  advance  to 
so  amend  the  Interstate  Act  that  the  tax  for  the 
shortest  haul,  the  tax  representing  the  cost  of  the 
average  service,  should  be  the  uniform,  standard 
tax  for  all  hauls. 

1  See  Texas  and  Pacific  case. 


AND   PASSENGER   POST.  ICX) 

Finally,  the  Interstate  Act  forbids  pooling.  In- 
stead of  looking  at  the  railroads  as  the  great  circu- 
lating system  of  the  country,  each  line  existing  for 
the  development  of  its  particular  territory,  and  all 
working  together  for  the  harmonious  growth  of  the 
whole,  the  Interstate  Act  regards  each  road  as 
somehow  the  competitor  of  every  other.  The  idea 
seems  to  me  as  ridiculous  as  it  would  be  to  regard 
the  arteries  and  veins  of  the  human  body  as  com- 
petitors ;  the  arteries  as  competitors  of  the  veins, 
and  each  artery  and  vein  as  the  competitor  of  every 
other.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Mr.  Depew  styles 
this  giant  piece  of  legislation  a  mere  skeleton. 

Yet  it  is  something  to  have  a  skeleton,  for  we 
may  clothe  it  with  flesh  and  blood  and  breathe 
into  it  the  breath  of  life. 

The  solution  of  the  railroad  problem  involves 
both  our  industrial  and  our  political  liberties.  It 
is  as  essential  to  our  common  welfare  to-day  that 
the  regulation  of  railroad  tariffs  should  be  taken 
from  our  various  railroad  governments,  and  that 
the  revenues  therefrom  should  be  pooled  under  the 
direction  of  the  general  Government,  as  it  was  to 
the  common  welfare  of  our  ancestors,  in  1789,  that 
the  regulation  of  the  customs  tariff  should  be  taken 
from  the  different  States,  and  that  the  revenue 
arising  therefrom  should  be  taken  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  same  central  power. 

We  are  no  longer  a  mere  confederation  of  inde- 
pendent States  or  of  independent  railroad  provinces, 
but  a  great  nation  of  individuals,  indissolubly 


110  A    GENERAL    FREIGHT 

bound  together,  and  the  strongest  ties  that  unite 
us  are  those  of  friendly  and  of  commercial  inter- 
course ;  that  intercourse,  moreover,  is  almost 
entirely  dependent  upon  the  railways  which,  from 
their  birth,  have  been  our  great  fost-roads  and,  as 
such,  have  always  been  subject  to  the  eighth  sec- 
tion of  the  first  article  of  our  national  Constitution. 
For  many  years  the  Post-office  has  handled  the 
commerce  in  paper-covered  books,  both  within 
states  and  across  state  boundaries.  If  it  is  within 
the  limits  of  the  Constitution  for  the  Postal  De- 
partment to  undertake  this  branch  of  transporta- 
tion, then  it  is  equally  constitutional  to  extend  the 
sphere  of  the  Post-office  to  cover  the  entire  busi- 
ness of  public  transportation. 

The  Interstate  Act  requires  a  new  baptism  and  a 
new  name,  and  the  new  Act  may  well  be  called 
"  An  Act  for  the  Establishment  of  a  National  and 
an  International  Freight  and  Passenger  Post." 

This  scheme  does  not  necessitate  the  immediate 
ownership  of  the  railways  by  the  Government  ;  it 
is  not  absolutely  essential  for  its  success  that  the 
Government  should  own  one  dollar's  worth  of  rail- 
way property.  Its  adoption,  however,  will  make  it 
very  desirable  that  the  Government  should  own 
the  car-equipment  of  the  country,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  bonds  issued  for  this  purpose  could 
be  paid  for  in  a  very  brief  period  out  of  the  ordi- 
nary revenues  ;  this,  too,  after  paying  the  railroads 
most  handsomely  for  the  haulage  of  the  cars  and 
for  other  services. 


AND   PASSENGER  POST. 


Ill 


The  7,937  (in  round  numbers  8000)  postal,  bag- 
gage, and  express  cars  in  the  United  States  could 
be  paid  for  in  two  or  three  years,  even  in  one  year, 
out  of  the  annual  taxes  now  levied  upon  the  people 
for  the  transportation  of  the  mails  and  of  express 
matter,  and  this  after  allowing  the  railroads  a  very 
liberal  amount  for  the  haulage  of  these  cars. 
This  equipment  is  certainly  not  worth  over  $2500 
per  car  (the  baggage  and  express  cars  of  New 
York  State  are  only  valued  at  $1500  per  car), 
and,   at    this    rate,  the  8000   cars  would   come 

to $20,000,000 

The    interest   on   this  amount,  at  3^- 

per  cent,  is 700,000 

Allowing  $720  a  year  for  the  care 
and  repair  of  the  average  car  (the 
amount  estimated  by  Mr.  Vilas 
for  postal  cars,  in  his  report  of 

1887),  we  have 5,760,000 

The  Fitchburg  Railroad  of  Massachu- 
setts furnishes  its  milk  contractors 
with  cars,  heated  in  winter,  for 

$573°  Per  car  Per  vear- 
The  Boston  and  Maine  Road  taxes 

its  milk  contractors  but  $3000  per 

year  per  car. 
The  cost  of  hauling  a  freight  car  on 

the  Soo  Railroad,  in  1895,  was  but 

one  cent  a  mile,  at  which  rate  the 

cost  of  hauling  one  of  these  cars 

on  a  passenger  train,  300  miles  a 


112  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

day,  would  be  $3.00,  or  $1095  a 
year. 

But  even  allowing  the  railroads  $5000 
a  year,  for  the  mere  haulage  of  the 
average  baggage,  express  and  postal 
car,  the  cost  to  the  Government 
would  be  only 40,000,000 


Making  a  total  of $46,460,000 

The  people  paid  the  railroads,  for  the 

transportation  of  mail  and  express 

matter,  in  the  year  1894,  however, 

as  follows  : 
For  the  carriage  of  the 

mails $30,094,957 

For  express  service. . ..       23,035,300 

Total $53,130,257 

This  shows  a  difference  in  favor  of 
the  government  ownership  of  pos- 
tal, baggage,  and  express  equip- 
ment, per  year  of $6,670,257 

At  $3000  a  year,  per  car,  for  haulage,  the  annual 
saving  to  the  people  would  be  $22,670,257,  or 
$2,670,257  more  than  enough  to  pay  for  the  entire 
equipment  in  a  single  year. 

Even  if  the  railroads  were  allowed  the  exorbitant 
rate  of  $5000  a  year  per  car  for  haulage,  the  Gov- 
ernment would  require  but  three  years'  savings  to 
purchase  this  entire  equipment,  while  having  at  the 
same  time  the  entire  control  of  the  property  and 


AND   PASSENGER   POST.  11$ 

carrying  baggage  absolutely  free,  or  at  a  charge 
only  high  enough  to  pay  for  the  wages  of  the  bag- 
gage-masters for  handling  it,  a  charge  which  might 
be  distributed  over  all  the  baggage  handled  or 
which  could  be  easily  met  by  a  small  charge  on 
extra  baggage  as  at  present.  Where  railway  lines 
pass  through  a  thinly  settled  country,  the  ordinary 
mail-agent  would  be  able  in  many  cases  to  attend 
to  the  whole  business  of  handling  mail  bags,  trunks, 
and  express  matter. 

The  Government  ownership  of  our  baggage,  ex- 
press, and  postal  cars  would  secure  to  the  United 
States  the  cheapest  letter,  parcels,  and  baggage 
post  in  the  world. 

As  to  postal  cars,  it  is  quite  as  important  that  the 
Government  should  own  these  traveling  post-offices, 
these  wooden  mail-bags,  as  that  it  should  own  its 
leather  mail-bags.  Almost  every  great  business 
concern  in  the  country  finds  it  necessary  to  own 
its  cars  to-day,  and  surely  the  Government,  the 
greatest  business  corporation  of  them  all,  should  at 
least  own  its  postal  cars. 

The  common  welfare  unquestionably  demands 
that  the  general  government  should  both  own  and 
operate  the  railways,  and  the  change  from  private 
to  public  ownership  cannot  come  too  soon.  The 
result  would  be  not  only  no  increase  but  a  large 
decrease  in  the  interest  account  of  the  country, 
while  there  would  be  an  end  forever  of  those  issues 
of  fraudulent  railway  paper  currency  (over  four 
thousand  million  dollars  in  1892)  which  are  con- 


114  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

tinually  increasing  both  the  interest  and  the  prin- 
cipal of  our  national  obligations.  The  scheme 
would  simply  require  the  exchange  of  government 
stock — bonds  or  consols  payable  at  the  will  of  the 
government,  and  bearing  perhaps  two  and  one  half 
per  cent,  interest — for  railway  securities  drawing 
anywhere  from  one  to  twenty  per  cent.  In  1892, 
according  to  Van  Oss,  the  people  of  the  United 
States  were  taxed,  on  the  average,  eighteen  per  cent. 
on  the  actual  capital  represented  by  railway  shares, 
and  4.36  per  cent,  on  the  real  capital  invested  in 
railway  bonds.  It  may  by  said  that  the  fraudulent 
issues  of  1892  have  been  wiped  out  of  existence  in 
the  last  four  years,  but  the  subjects  of  the  New 
York  Central  are  still  paying  interest  on  stock  that 
is  more  than  one-half  water,  and  the  returns  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  show  that  the 
old  shares  and  bonds  of  bankrupt  roads  have 
been  frequently  replaced  by  new  issues  having 
little  other  basis  for  credit  than  the  possible  power 
of  railway  managers  to  raise  these  securities  from 
the  value  of  the  paper  on  which  they  are  written 
up  to  par  in  solid  gold  by  unnecessary  taxes  wrung 
from  the  common  people.  The  speculators  of 
1896  have,  moreover,  this  advantage  over  those  of 
1892  :  The  Joint  Traffic  Association  of  New  York 
seems  to  have  secured  wellnigh  absolute  control 
not  only  of  the  railways,  but  of  the  National  and 
State  governments,  and  its  power  to  levy  taxes  for 
the  payment  of  interest  on  these  fictitious  issues 
seems  to  be  practically  illimitable.  The  protection 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  11$ 

of  innocent  speculators  in  stocks  seems  to  be  a 
special  function  of  our  courts. 

"  The  anthracite  roads  combined  in  1896  with 
the  purpose  of  adding  some  $40,000,000  a  year  to 
the  cost  of  anthracite  coal  consumed  by  the  people 
of  the  United  States;  it  was  expected  that  the  bitu- 
minous roads  would  pile  a  similar  extra  burden 
upon  their  constituents.  How  much  the  poor  suf- 
fered during  the  winter  of  1896-97  from  high-priced 
fuel  will  never  be  known.  How  many  coal  miners, 
anxious  to  work,  starved  through  lack  of  employ- 
ment, will  also  remain  a  riddle.  This,  however,  is 
known.  In  the  summer  of  1897,  a  large  number  of 
coal  miners,  goaded  to  desperation,  rose  in  a  great 
strike  against  their  oppressors.  But  the  strike 
ended  as  such  movements  usually  end,  with  the 
practical  discomfiture  of  the  strikers.  They  gained, 
perhaps,  a  promise  of  higher  wages,  but  a  score  of 
poor,  ignorant  men  were  shot,  and  the  whole  com- 
munity suffered  heavy  loss.  The  place  to  strike  is 
at  the  ballot-box ;  the  thing  to  strike  for  is  '  The 
control  of  the  National  Highways  by  the  National 
Government.'  "  I  have  just  alluded  to  speculators 
in  railway  stocks  and  bonds.  The  case  against  the 
speculators  in  produce  and  their  associates,  is  well 
stated  in  an  article  entitled  "  Railways  Manufactur- 
ing Anarchists,"  in  The  Republican,  of  Springfield, 
Massachusetts,  of  August  2,  1896. 

"  Are  the  western  farmers  anarchists  ?  "  asks  The 
Republican;  "then,  according  to  President  A.  B. 
Stickney,  of  the  Chicago  Great  Western  railroad, 


11 6  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

they  have  reason  to  become  so,  and  the  railroads 
have  been  largely  responsible.  Testifying  before 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  in  a  recent 
investigation  which,  he  claimed,  certain  other  roads 
had  brought  on,  in  the  hope  of  catching  him  engaged 
in  unlawful  practices,  President  Stickney  turned 
upon  the  accusing  attorneys,  and  said  :  .  .  .  'You 
charge  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  farmer  thirteen 
cents  to  haul  his  grain  two  hundred  miles.  You 
charge  the  grain  dealer  six  cents  to  haul  that  same 
grain  twice  as  far  to  Chicago.  I  tell  you  it  is  that 
kind  of  business  that  is  making  anarchists  west  of 
the  Missouri  River.  Here  is  the  trouble.  I  have 
been  acquainted  with  this  northwestern  country  for 
thirty-five  years.  In  all  that  time  there  has  never 
been  a  year  that  the  corn  crop  was  moved  until 
after  the  corn  was  in  the  hands  of  dealers  who  had 
the  rate.  Once  the  farmer  is  compelled  to  sell  his 
grain,  then  you  fellows  cut  the  rate  for  the  dealer. 
There  is  in  Kansas,  this  year,  240,000,000  bushels 
of  corn.  Not  over  25,000,000  has  been  moved  so 
far  this  year.  The  farmer,  the  small  dealer,  has 
not  the  rate.  He  is  compelled  to  sell,  and  then 
you  fellows  make  the  rate  for  the  purchasers,  and 
then  the  corn  moves.'  That  is  to  say,"  continues 
The  Republican,  "  the  railroads  beyond  the  Missouri 
River  make  to  the  farmer,  for  carrying  his  grain  to 
the  Missouri  River  dealer,  what  rate  they  please. 
They  make  a  mileage  rate  four  times  as  high  as  is 
charged  the  dealer  for  moving  the  grain  over  the 
competitive  distances  between  the  Missouri  River 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  I  I/ 

and  Chicago.  They  play  in  with  the  dealers  and 
against  the  farmers,  and  they  further  freeze  out 
small  shippers,  from  the  Missouri  River  by  making 
secret  rates  in  favor  of  the  large  ones." 

And  the  railroads  have  been  doing  this  for  many 
years,  building  up  the  strong  at  the  expense  of  the 
weak,  and  doing  more  than  all  other  causes  put 
together  probably  to  promote  concentration  of 
great  wealth  in  few  hands.  Well  may  the  editor 
conclude  that  the  proposition  for  the  public  owner- 
ship of  railways  is  far  from  being  as  anarchistic 
as  that  for  a  continuation  of  private  management 
within  the  limits  of  the  present  lawlessness. 

Happily  the  protection  of  the  taxpayer  from  the 
lawless  raids  of  the  tax  farmer  does  not  require 
that  the  government  should  take  immediate  posses- 
sion of  the  entire  property  of  the  railways.  It  is, 
however,  essential,  I  think,  to  our  continued  ex- 
istence as  a  free  people,  that  the  government  should, 
without  delay,  secure  absolute  control  of  railway 
trains  ;  the  taxes  levied  for  the  support  of  the  rail- 
ways, post-roads,  should  be  determined  on  the 
postal  principle  and  should  be  collected  and  dis- 
tributed by  government  officials.  In  other  words, 
the  entire  business  of  public  transportation  should 
be  pooled  under  the  management  of  the  Post-office. 

In  the  proposed  reform  of  our  transportation 
taxes  it  will  probably  be  found  advisable,  at  the  be- 
ginning, to  follow  the  example  of  Sir  Rowland  Hill 
in  his  reform  of  the  old  English  postal  system,  and 
to  adopt,  as  the  uniform  rate  for  each  class  of  ser- 


Il8  A    GENERAL   FX  EIGHT 

vice  for  all  distances,  the  lowest  rate  now  charged 
for  the  shortest  distance  for  that  class  of  service. 
In  some  cases,  however,  as  for  instance  in  the 
transportation  of  milk,  it  will  be  possible  to  com- 
mence with  a  uniform  rate  much  lower  than  the 
lowest  rate  now  charged  for  the  shortest  distance, 
a  rate  for  milk  perhaps  as  low  as  ten  cents  for 
a  forty  quart  can.  Even  a  ten  cent  rate  would 
secure  to  a  car  carrying  but  two  hundred  cans, 
earnings  of  $20  a  day,  or  $6260  per  year  of  313 
days,  or  $7300  including  Sundays.  The  average 
cost  of  the  service  of  transporting  milk,  regardless 
of  differences  of  distance  up  to  330  miles,  on  the 
Erie,  the  Ontario  and  Western,  the  Lehigh  and 
Hudson,  and  the  Susquehanna  Railroads,  in  1894, 
was  less  than  eight  cents  a  can.  The  tax,  however, 
was  fifty  cents  for  a  forty-quart  can  of  cream,  and 
thirty-two  cents  a  forty-quart  can  of  milk.1 

This  postal  principle,  this  cost  of  the  service 
principle,  is  applicable  to  railway  traffic,  either 
under  the  present  system  of  railway  management 
or  under  government  control  of  railways  or  under 
government  ownership.  It  may  be  applied  within 
State  limits  by  acts  of  our  different  State  Legisla- 
tures. It  would  work  miracles  in  human  advance- 
ment, whether  it  were  adopted  on  the  railroads  of 
Belgium,  which  are  the  property  of  the  Belgian 
people,  or  on  the  post-roads  of  the  United  States, 

1  See  brief  of  Joseph  H.  Choate,  in  the  Milk  Case  tried  in 
New  York  before  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  in 
December,  1895,  pp.  3,  102. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  119 

which  are  farmed  by  joint-stock  companies,  but 
not  until  applied  under  the  national  government 
can  any  country  reap  its  full  benefits.  It  will  in- 
deed reach  its  full  fruition  only  under  some  scheme 
which  shall  embrace  all  the  governments  of  the 
earth  in  one  great  International  Transportation 
Union. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  this  project,  neither  is  it 
based  on  mere  theory.  It  is  said  that  Napoleon 
III.  conceived  the  idea  of  extending  the  sphere  of 
the  Post-office  to  cover  the  general  railway  business 
of  France.  A  similar  scheme  was  advocated  in 
England  some  fifty  years  ago  by  William  Gait,  and 
again,  about  twenty  years  later,  by  A.  J.  Williams, 
and  by  Raphael  Brandon.  It  has  been  recently 
taken  up  by  Charles  Waring,  who  proposes  a  uni- 
form rate  of  four  shillings  (one  dollar)  a  ton  per 
haul  for  ordinary  merchandise,  and  one  shilling 
(twenty-five  cents)  a  ton  for  minerals  on  the  rail- 
ways of  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales,  and  for 
Ireland  a  merchandise  rate  of  eighty-three  cents  a 
ton,  and  twenty-five  cents  for  minerals.  The 
thought  was  suggested  to  me  some  years  ago  by 
C.  N.  Yeomans,  then  manager  of  the  New  Haven 
and  Northampton  road  of  Connecticut  ;  the  idea 
has  evidently  found  lodgment  in  the  fertile  brains 
of  Mr.  Depew  and  Mr.  Alexander.  "  To  the  con- 
sumer," says  A.  J.  Grierson,  Manager  of  the  Great 
Western  Railway  of  England,  "  the  ideally  perfect 
state  of  things  would  be  a  tariff  for  the  conveyance 
of  merchandise  based  on  the  same  principle  as 


I2O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  '  Penny  Post.'  Commodities  would  be  con- 
veyed at  a  low  price,  and  producers  over  an  im- 
mense area  would  be  able  to  send  them  to  market. 
To  the  consumer  it  would  be  in  every  way  desira- 
ble that  all  disadvantages  of  distance  or  geograph- 
ical advantages  should  disappear." 

Our  express  and  telegraph  companies  have  long 
applied  this  postal  principle,  in  a  limited  degree, 
to  their  business.  A  parcel  sent  from  New  Haven 
to  Birmingham,  Alabama,  costs  thirty  cents  ;  the 
charge  on  the  same  parcel  from  New  Hav*en  to 
New  York  is  twenty-five  cents.  The  express  com- 
panies are  carrying  certain  publications  issued  by 
our  state  governments  at  a  uniform  rate  through- 
out the  whole  country,  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact 
that  the  express  rates  are  always  just  a  little  lower 
than  the  rates  which  the  Post-office  levies.  The 
U.  S.  postage  on  a  Massachusetts  Railroad  Report, 
is  thirteen  cents;  the  express  on  the  same  book 
from  Boston  to  New  Haven,  Conn.,  is  twelve 
cents. 

The  postal  principle  has  been  almost  universally 
adopted  on  horse-car  lines,  cable  roads,  and  elec- 
tric tramways.  It  is  the  foundation  of  the  pros- 
perity of  the  elevated  railways  in  our  great  cities. 
The  following  facts  will  prove,  moreover,  that  leg- 
islation to  secure  the  general  grouping  of  stations 
with  uniform  rates  regardless  of  distance,  within  a 
state  or  within  the  limits  of  a  nation,  would  only 
be  the  enactment  into  law  of  what  is  already  a  very 
common  custom  and  a  rapidly  growing  custom,  and 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  121 

I  would  suggest  that  most  of  our  legislation  that  is 
of  real  value  is  based  on  custom.  Law  is,  indeed, 
little  more  than  crystallized  custom. 

The  grouping  of  stations  with  a  uniform  rate  has 
been  customary  from  the  first  in  the  milk  business 
of  the  principal  railway  lines  bringing  milk  to  New 
York  City.  On  the  milk  trains  of  the  New  York, 
Ontario  and  Western,  the  Erie,  and  the  Susquehan- 
na  railways  which,  in  1887,  carried  nearly  one-half 
the  milk  consumed  in  New  York,  the  rates  during 
that  year  were  the  same  within  zones  of  21  to  183 
miles,  on  the  Erie  ;  56  to  262  miles  on  the  Ontario 
and  Western,  and  29  to  84  miles,  on  the  Susque- 
hanna.  About  that  time,  certain  Orange  County 
farmers  living  nearer  the  metropolis  than  some  of 
their  competitors,  brought  suit  before  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  to  compel  these  railways  to 
adjust  their  milk  rates  according  to  distance,  claim- 
ing that  the  uniform  rate  deprived  them  of  the 
natural  advantage  of  their  location  and  was  there- 
fore contrary  to  law.  The  Commission  decided, 
however,  in  favor  of  the  grouped  rate,  saying,  "  It 
has  served  the  people  well.  It  tends  to  promote 
consumption  and  to  stimulate  production.  It  is  not 
apparent  how  any  other  system  could  be  devised 
that  would  present  results  equally  useful  or  more 
just.  To  subdivide  the  rate  according  to  distance, 
or  even  to  introduce  a  system  of  shorter  grouping 
of  rates,  would  necessarily  compel  a  new  system  of 
receiving,  delivering,  and  accounting,  would  cause 
great  inconvenience  to  carriers  and  dealers,  would 


122  A    GENERAL   f  A' EIGHT 

impede  the  rapid  and  reliable  management  of  the 
traffic,  would  restrict  the  extent  of  the  territory  re- 
quired for  future  public  demands,  and  apparently 
would  not,  in  the  slightest  degree,  benefit  the  com- 
plainants. It  (the  Commission)  is  moreover  im- 
pressed with  the  belief  that  the  present  system  is, 
upon  the  whole,  the  best  that  can  be  devised  for 
the  general  good  of  all  engaged  in  the  traffic." 

In  October,  1895,  the  milk  producers  of  Orange 
County  again  brought  suit  against  the  railways  be- 
fore the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  on  the 
same  plea,  adding,  however,  the  complaint  that  the 
uniform  rate  was  too  high.  The  decision  of  the 
Commission  in  this  last  trial  which  it  was  my  privi- 
lege to  attend,  has  not  yet  been  given  to  the  public, 
but  the  testimony,  while  showing  that  the  milk  zone 
has  widened  full  fifty  per  cent,  in  seven  years  and 
now  covers  distances  up  to  330  miles,  sustained 
the  former  decision  at  all  points,  and  that  decision 
must,  I  believe,  be  confirmed.1  It  is  a  curious  fact 
that  in  this  trial  the  representatives  of  the  rail- 
ways were  to  be  seen  pleading  for  the  common 
grouped  rate,  and  the  strongest  witness  in  its  favor 
was  George  R.  Blanchard,  formerly  Vice-President 
of  the  Erie,  and  now  one  of  the  officials  of  the  Joint 
Traffic  Association.  When  asked  by  Commissioner 
Knapp,  "  If  it  is  to  the  advantage  of  the  railway 
companies  and  of  the  consumers  of  milk  to  have  a 
uniform  rate  up  to  330  miles,  why  not  up  to  1000  "  ? 
Mr.  Blanchard's  reply  was,  "  I  know  of  no  reason." 
But  Messrs.  Rogers,  Locke  and  Milburn,  the  lead- 
1  Decided  against  uniform  rate.  See  Preface. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  123 

ing  counsel  of  the  defendant  railways  in  this  case, 
go  even  farther  than  Mr.  Hlam  hard,  fur  they  say, 
''The  distance  (within  which  the  rate  should  he 
uniform)  need  only  be  limited  by  the  length  of 
time  required  to  make  it  with  the  train  and  meet 
the  wants  of  the  New  York  market  with  milk  not 
affected  by  its  t  ransporl  at  ion."  In  other  words,  if 
milk  <an  be  brought  from  San  Francisco  to  New 
York  in  good  condition,  then  the  milk  rate  should 
be  the  same  for  all  distances  between  San  Fran- 
cisco and  New  York,  and  for  this  reason,  "  because 
of  the  fact  that  the  expense  incident  to  the  mere 
length  of  haul  is  so  small  in  comparison  with  the 
oilier  ne<cssary  charges  when  taken  into  connection 
with  the  special  service.  The  cost  of  train  operation 
is  not  appreciably  more  whether  there  be  200  cans 
in  a  car  or  160  cans  in  a  car  or  10  cans  in  a  car. 
The  same  crew,  the  same  messengers  and  organiza- 
tion and  the  same  terminal  service  would  have  to 
be  maintained  whether  the  can  be  carried  from 
Binghamton  or  not,  or  from  Sussex  County  or  not, 
and  the  cost  of  the  delivery  of  the  can  at  the 
Hoboken  terminal  is  in  no  real  sense  dependent 
upon  the  length  of  its  haul."1 

Our  railway  friends,  moveover,  do  not  rest  with 
the  mere  statement  of  these  fundamental  truths. 
The  fact  that  distance  costs  practically  nothing  in 
the  transportation  of  persons  and  of  property  by 
railway  ;  the  fact  that,  all  things  being  taken  into 
consideration,  the  cost  of  the  service  is  the  same 

1  See  Defendant's  Brief,  page  II. 


124  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

for  the  shortest  haul  as  for  the  longest,  is  acknowl- 
edged by  the  acts  of  railway  managers  not  only  in 
this  milk  case  but  in  thousands  of  other  instances. 
The  grouping  of  stations  with  a  uniform  rate  re- 
gardless of  differences  of  distance  is  widely  applied 
even  now,  and  it  is  rapidly  growing.  It  is  very  com- 
mon in  the  coal  regions.  The  entire  Hocking  Valley 
is  grouped.  Large  coal  districts  in  Illinois,  Wiscon- 
sin, and  other  western  states  enjoy  a  uniform  rate. 
The  coal  rates  are  the  same  for  all  stations  within 
a  radius  of  forty  miles  of  Pittsburgh.  Potatoes  are 
given  the  same  rates  from  the  different  stations  on 
the  lines  and  branch  lines  of  the  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Norfolk  road,  within  limits  of  two 
hundred  miles.  In  the  Delaware  peninsula,  the 
rates  on  grain,  flour,  and  other  similar  pruducts, 
are  extensively  grouped.  The  coal  rates  are  the 
same  on  the  Northampton  division  of  the  Consoli- 
dated Railroad  of  Connecticut,  for  all  stations  be- 
tween Mt.  Carmel,  nine  miles  from  New  Haven 
and  Westfield,  some  sixty  miles.  All  the  stations 
on  the  Consolidated  railway  system,  the  New  York 
and  New  England,  the  Boston  and  Maine,  and  the 
Vermont  Valley  roads,  are  in  one  great  group  in 
relation  to  their  through  business  with  the  Lehigh 
Valley  system  which  is  divided  into  eleven  groups. 
All,  or  nearly  all,  the  hundreds  of  railroad  stations 
in  New  England  south  of  Portland,  Maine,  are  in- 
cluded in  the  group  known  as  Boston  Points,  from 
each  of  which  the  rates  are  the  same,  on  the  same 
class  of  goods,  to  all  the  stations  in  even  large 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  12$ 

groups  in  the  South  and  West.  In  transconti- 
nental traffic,  all  the  Pacific  Coast  terminals  from 
Tacoma  and  Seattle,  in  Washington  on  the  north, 
to  San  Diego,  California,  in  the  south,  are  in  one 
group  from  which  the  rates  are,  in  general,  uniform 
on  similar  goods  to  all  stations  in  each  of  the  six 
great  groups  into  which  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  east  of  the  Missouri  River  is  divided.  The 
rates  on  oranges  have  been  and  probably  are  now 
the  same  from  Los  Angeles  to  all  stations  east  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  the  same  to  Chicago,  2265  miles, 
and  to  New  York,  3180  miles. 

The  custom  of  giving  large  groups  of  stations  a 
uniform  rate  on  similar  products  in  through  busi- 
ness, has,  indeed,  become  almost  universal  in  this 
country  and,  as  I  have  shown,  it  is  not  uncommon 
in  local  traffic.  Milk,  oranges,  potatoes,  grain, 
coal,  petroleum,  passengers,  are  transported  to- 
day, in  numberless  instances,  on  our  American  rail- 
ways at  the  same  rates  between  stations  varying  in 
distance  from  one  another  and  from  the  starting 
point  from  a  score  of  miles  to  a  thousand. 

In  January,  1894,  the  Canadian  Pacific  road  sold 
passenger  tickets  at  the  same  rate  (forty  dollars, 
first-class,  and  thirty  dollars  second-class)  from  St. 
Paul,  Minnesota,  to  Vancouver,  1660  miles;  to 
Portland,  1920  miles,  and  to  San  Francisco,  2760 
miles.  Several  of  the  cities  of  New  England  are 
grouped  as  to  passenger  rates  to  yet  larger  groups 
of  cities  in  the  south,  although  the  difference  of 
distance  between  the  cities  in  these  groups  amounts 


126  A    GENERAL  FK EIGHT 

to  fifty  or  sixty  miles  in  the  north,  and  to  several 
hundred  in  the  south. 

Nor  is  the  grouping  of  stations  confined  to  the 
United  States.  The  English  rates  on  tin  plates 
are  the  same  to  Liverpool  from  Camarthen,  on  the 
west,  and  from  Monmouth  on  the  east,  though  the 
distances  vary  from  160  to  206  miles.  The  milk 
rates  on  the  Great  Western  Railway  of  England 
are  the  same  for  distances  of  from  ten  miles  to  one 
hundred,  and  we  have  seen  that  all  the  noncom- 
petitive  stations  on  the  Great  Eastern  Railway, 
covering  a  district  of  over  a  thousand  miles,  have 
just  been  grouped  for  parcels  up  to  twenty  pounds 
at  eight  cents,  and  from  twenty  to  twenty-five 
pounds  at  ten  cents,  and  this  by  passenger  trains. 
The  stations  in  the  coal  regions  are  very  com- 
monly grouped  both  in  England  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent. In  Germany,  the  same  charges  are  made 
from  coal  stations  to  Bremen  and  to  Hamburg, 
although  the  latter  is  seventy-one  miles  further  off 
than  the  former. 

In  1889,  Hungary  made  certain  radical  changes 
in  its  system  of  passenger  transportation,  and 
especially  in  two  particulars.  First,  the  govern- 
ment adopted  a  system  of  neighborhood  tariffs 
making  the  rates  between  any  two  adjacent  stations 
the  same,  regardless  of  differences  of  distance — 
namely,  twelve  cents  first-class,  six  cents  second- 
class,  and  four  cents  third-class,  and  from  any  one 
station  to  the  second  station,  sixteen,  nine,  and  six 
cents.  For  all  distances  between  140  and  457 


AND   PASSENGER  POST.  I2/ 

miles,  the  stations  were  grouped  with  a  uniform 
rate,  by  ordinary  trains,  $3.20,  $2.32,  and  $1.60  for 
the  respective  classes.  By  express  trains,  the  rates 
were  about  twenty  per  cent,  higher.  The  result 
was  that  the  neighborhood  passenger  traffic  of 
Hungary  increased  in  the  interval,  1889  to  1892, 
from  2,912,400  to  20,412,100,  over  600  per  cent., 
and  the  long  distance  travel  increased  from  246,200 
to  970,600,  or  294  per  cent. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  reform  of  the  railway 
system  of  Hungary  has  been  to  throw  the  burden 
of  railroad  expenses  on  the  shoulders  of  those  able 
to  bear  it,  namely,  on  the  long-distance  travellers 
using  express  trains,  the  class  corresponding  to  our 
Pullman-car  travellers.  This  class,  numbering,  in 
1892,  about  a  million,  paid  over  twenty  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  passenger  taxes.  In  the  United  States 
this  class  does  not  pay  one  half  the  cost  of  their 
own  transportation. 

The  influence  of  the  comparatively  low,  uniform^ 
five-cent  fare  on  the  Manhattan  Elevated  Road  of 
New  York  may  well  be  styled  magical.  This  road, 
with  only  a  hundred  miles  of  track,  and  traversing 
a  district  occupied  by  less  than  two  million  people, 
carried,  in  1893,  over  214,000,000  passengers,  three 
eighths  as  many  as  were  carried  in  the  same  period 
by  all  the  trains  of  our  great  railroad  system  of  over 
170,000  miles  of  track,  and  traversing  a  territory 
inhabited  by  over  60,000,000  people.  With  five- 
cent  fares,  the  Manhattan  Road,  after  paying  over 
$2,000,000  in  rentals  and  interest  on  its  bonds, 


128  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

earned  nearly  ten  per  cent,  on  its  $30,000,000  of 
stock  (largely  water).  Its  operating  expenses  were 
less  than  three  cents  a  passenger.  Governor  Flower 
signed  a  bill,  during  his  term  of  office,  requiring 
this  road  to  so  widen  the  sphere  of  its  five-cent 
fares  as  to  include  an  extensive  suburban  district,' 
and  in  giving  his  reasons  for  signing  the  measure, 
he  is  reported  to  have  said  that  it  would  not  only 
benefit  the  people,  but  would  also  increase  the 
profits  of  the  road. 

I  believe  that  a  similar  result  would  follow  to 
every  railway  corporation  that  had  the  courage  and 
the  foresight  to  adopt  a  similar  policy.  It  would 
promote  consumption  and  stimulate  production. 
It  would  prove  to  be  the  best  possible  system  of 
rates  for  all  engaged  in  railway  traffic.  Would  a 
railway  corporation  secure  to  itself  the  largest  pos- 
sible profits,  and  to  the  district  which  it  serves, 
the  greatest  possible  development,  then  let  it  apply 
to  its  local  business  the  life-giving  principle  which 
has  been  almost  universally  adopted  in  through 
traffic,  and  make  the  rate  for  its  shortest  haul  the 
common  rate  for  all  hauls  within  its  jurisdiction. 

If  distances  of  a  thousand  miles,  and  between 
the  stations  of  a  dozen  railway  systems,  can  be 
safely  and  profitably  ignored  in  through  railway 
traffic  ;  if  distances  of  scores,  and  of  hundreds  of 
miles,  can  be  safely  disregarded  in  the  local  trans- 
portation of  milk  and  potatoes  and  grain,  then 
surely  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  a  gen- 
eral grouping  of  all  the  railway  stations  in  the 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  1 29 

country  with  a  uniform  rate  will  prove  to  be  the 
best  possible  system  that  can  be  devised  for  the 
common  good  of  all.  What  reason  is  there  for 
ignoring  distance  between  Boston  Common  Points, 
in  their  through  business,  that  does  not  apply  with 
even  greater  force  to  their  local  business  with  one 
another  ? 

Let  us  imagine  for  a  moment  what  would  be  the 
influence  of  such  low,  uniform  transportation  taxes 
on  a  district  served,  say,  by  such  a  corporation  as 
the  Consolidated  Road  of  Connecticut,  controlling 
upwards  of  2000  miles  of  territory.  The  lowest 
regular  passenger  tax  now  levied  by  this  road,  as  I 
find  it,  is  five  cents.  The  highest  express  fare,  by 
ordinary  cars,  for  the  longest  distance  without  stops 
(that  between  New  York  and  New  Haven,  seventy- 
three  miles),  is  $1.50.  The  lowest  freight  rates  on 
this  road  that  I  have  discovered  are  those  between 
Southington  and  Plantsville,  on  the  Northampton 
division,  distance  one  mile,  and  these  rates  are  as 
follows  : 

First  class,  $  .06  per  hundred  pounds  or  $1.20  a  ton. 
Second  "  $  .05  "  "  "  "  $1.00  " 

Third     "      $  .04  "         "  "        "  $  .80     " 

Fourth  "      $  .04  "         "  "        "  $  .80     " 

Fifth       "      $  .03  "         "  "        "  $  .60     " 

Sixth      "      $  .02J          "  "       "  $  .50     " 

On  wood,  the  lowest  rate  appears  to  be  $4.80  a 
car  for  soft  wood  and  $6.00  for  hard  wood,  for 
hauls  of  not  over  ten  miles  ;  on  brick,  $7.00  per 


130  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

g 

car  per  ten-mile  haul  ;  on  spruce  lumber,  $8.00  for 
the  handling  of  a  carload  of  26,000  feet. 

Under  the  proposed  grouping  of  stations,  the 
entire  tariff  schedule  of  the  Consolidated  Road 
would  be  reduced  to  very  nearly  this  brief  state- 
ment, and  it  might  be  made  yet  more  simple. 
Under  a  system  of  rates  based  on  the  cost  of  the 
service  freight  would  be  divided  into  but  two  or 
three  classes.  With  transportation  taxes  collected 
in  advance,  and  with  the  prompt  handling  of 
freight  cars,  it  would  undoubtedly  be  possible  to 
make  uniform  rates  of  say  six  dollars  per  box-car 
haul  and  five  dollars  per  haul  for  the  use  of  plat- 
form cars  with  loads  of  any  character  up  to  the 
car's  capacity.  The  additions  to  the  schedule  for 
fast  trains  making  few  stops,  and  for  special  ser- 
vice, would  cover,  perhaps,  a  half  sheet  of  note- 
paper. 

Under  such  a  scheme  every  station  and  every 
man  at  every  station  along  the  lines  of  the  Con- 
solidated Road  would  at  once  be  placed  on  a  par 
with  every  other  as  to  the  cost  of  exchanging 
services  and  products  with  his  neighbors.  The 
low  uniform  rates,  limited  though  they  were  to  the 
territory  of  a  single  railway  corporation,  would 
rouse  the  whole  community  to  new  life.  The  five- 
cent  fares  on  way  trains  would  widen  the  sphere 
within  which  a  laborer  could  find  occupation  to 
thirty  or  forty  miles  from  his  home — an  hour's 
journey.  The  earnings  of  the  people  would  largely 
increase,  and  with  an  increase  of  earnings  would 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  13! 

come  an  increase  of  purchasing  power  that  would 
afford  a  continually  increasing  demand  upon  the 
freight  department  of  the  railroad.  In  winter,  the 
countryman,  now  kept  at  home  in  enforced  idle- 
ness by  reason  of  high  transportation  taxes,  would 
be  able  to  seek  occupation  in  the  city  shops.  In 
summer,  the  factory  hand  would  be  able  to  re- 
store his  vigor  by  betaking  himself  to  the  open 
fields.  In  summer  or  in  winter,  the  poorest  man 
would  find  it  possible  to  take  himself  and  his 
family  to  almost  any  station  on  the  Consolidated 
Road  for  a  holiday.  Under  such  a  condition  of 
things,  all  Southern  New  England  would  become 
one  great  city,  within  which  the  railroad  trains 
would  run  like  a  weaver's  shuttle,  weaving  a  web 
that  would  bind  the  railway  and  the  people  to- 
gether in  harmonious  prosperity.  But  it  requires 
little  argument  to  demonstrate  the  utility  of  a  gen- 
eral grouping  of  railway  rates  to  the  people.  The 
advancement  of  the  common  welfare  would  be 
nothing  less  than  miraculous,  and  the  railroads 
would  secure  their  full  share  in  that  advancement. 
If  the  various  States  of  our  Union  understand 
their  true  interests,  the  very  next  session  of  their 
legislatures  will  see  the  enactment  of  laws  apply- 
ing this  beneficent  cost  of  the  service  principle 
to  all  railway  traffic  within  their  respective  juris- 
dictions. Our  railroads,  however,  are  but  the 
arteries  and  veins  of  our  national  circulating  sys- 
tem, and  the  movements  of  persons  and  of  prop- 
erty throughout  the  whole  system  ought  to  be 


132  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

determined  by  a  law  as  uniform  and  as  stable  as 
that  which  regulates  the  flow  of  the  blood  in  the 
human  body.  The  uniform  tax  ought  to  be  as  low 
as  possible,  and  it  ought  to  be  determined  by  a 
power  representing  the  common  interest  and  capa- 
ble of  enforcing  its  judgments.  The  scheme  pro- 
posed fulfils  all  these  conditions.  Once  adopted, 
it  will,  I  believe,  prove  to  be  the  best  scheme  that 
could  be  devised  for  the  general  good  of  the  whole 
people.  Best,  unless,  perhaps  at  some  future  time, 
it  may  be  found  still  better  to  make  the  ordinary 
use  of  our  great  circulating  system  altogether  free, 
and  to  support  the  railways  as  our  ordinary  high- 
ways, and  as  the  Erie  Canal  and  as  the  vertical 
railways  in  our  tall  office  buildings  are  supported, 
by  a  general  tax  on  the  districts  which  the  railways 
serve. 

The  essential  thing  in  railway  business  is  fast- 
running,  well-filled  trains  kept  in  constant  use, 
and  this  result  can  only  be  obtained  by  making  it 
possible  for  the  ordinary  man  to  move  himself  and 
his  products  from  any  one  station  to  any  other  at  a 
low,  uniform  rate.  Products  of  high  value,  like 
persons  of  large  wealth,  are  mere  incidents  of  rail- 
way transportation.  If  they  were  carried  free  (as 
they  often  are),  the  loss  to  the  railroads  would  be 
comparatively  little.  It  is  commodities  of  low 
value  and  persons  of  small  incomes  travelling  short 
distances  that  pay  railway  expenses  and  yield 
railway  profits. 

From  eighty  to  ninety  per  cent,  of  railway  freight 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  133 

is  composed  of  commodities  that  must  go  at  low 
rates  if  they  move  at  all,  and  what  is  true  of 
products  is  equally  true  of  persons.  Make  all  the 
rates  low,  uniform,  regardless  of  distance  and  of 
the  volume  of  traffic,  and  railway  locomotives  will 
run  with  trains  loaded  very  near  the  limit  of 
their  capacity.  Such  business  even  at  the  lowest 
rates,  is  far  more  profitable  than  light  trains  kept 
three-fourths  empty  by  rates  at  once  so  high,  so  un- 
certain, and  so  discriminating,  as  to  make  the  rail- 
ways almost  useless  to  the  masses  of  the  people. 
The  following  dictum  of  the  President  of  the 
Pennsylvania  road  can  hardly  be  too  often  re- 
peated :  "  The  man  that  gets  into  a  Pullman  car 
does  not  pay  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar  of  what  it 
costs  to  haul  him.  The  man  who  gets  his  dinner 
on  the  train  to  New  York  does  not  pay  twenty-five 
per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  that  dinner.  It  is  the  poor 
man  who  sits  in  a  common  car,  and  sits  two  or 
three  on  a  seat  who  supports  the  railways  of  this 
country." 

"  In  India,"  says  Horace  Bell,  "  the  third-class 
travel  affords  the  backbone  of  coaching  receipts  ; 
the  other  classes  might,  as  far  as  profit  is  concerned,  be 
abolished ;  indeed,  on  most  lines,  their  removal  would 
be  a  positive  gain."  Not  many  years  ago  a  lead- 
ing railway  manager  in  India  stated  that  it  would 
pay  him  to  give  every  first-class  passenger  twenty 
rupees  to  stay  away.  "  The  English  railway  com- 
panies," says  Sir  George  Findlay,  late  General 
Manager  of  the  London  and  Northwestern  Rail- 


134  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

way,  "  have  spent  and  are  spending  large  sums  of 
money  in  providing  the  most  luxurious  accommo- 
dations for  the  benefit  of  the  *  Superior  Classes,' 
practically  at  their  own  expense  ;  it  is  the  humble 
and  once  despised  third-class  traveller  who  fur- 
nishes the  sinews  of  war."  The  Scotch  Express, 
with  the  weight  of  the  sleeping  car,  carries  its  first- 
class  passenger  at  less,  per  ton  mile,  than  the  coal 
rate.  It  is  said  that  the  balance  of  loss  from  the 
first-and  second-class  services  of  all  the  railways 
of  England  and  Wales,  north  of  the  Thames,  in 
1890,  was  ,£325,000,  which,  but  for  the  maintenance 
of  these  services,  would  have  gone  directly  into  the 
pockets  of  the  ordinary  shareholders.  In  other 
words,  the  third-class  travellers  on  these  English 
railways  not  only  paid  all  the  expenses  and  a  fair 
profit  on  their  own  transportation,  they  also  contrib- 
uted $1,625,000  in  a  single  year  towards  the  trans- 
portation of  their  first-and  second-class  brethren. 

In  1890,  out  of  817,744,000  tickets  sold  on  the 
railways  of  Great  Britain,  724,697,000  were  third- 
class,  and  they  furnished  nearly  three-fourths  of 
the  passenger  revenues.  The  number  of  travellers 
increased  27,719,688  during  the  next  year,  and  of 
these  nearly  27,000,000  were  third-class. 

"  These  facts,"  says  R.  A.  Cooper,  in  his  pam- 
phlet on  Free  Railway  Travel,  "  show  that  the  nation 
travels  third-class,  and  the  only  practical  limit 
to  the  number  of  those  who  would  travel  is  the 
cost  of  the  tickets,  for  every  reduction  in  fares  has 
been  followed  by  an  enormous  increase  of  third- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  135 

class  passengers.  But  vast  as  these  numbers  are,  it 
would  be  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  mass  of  the 
people  travel  much.  A  small  class,  such  as  com- 
mercial travellers,  almost  live  on  the  rail,  making 
perhaps  hundreds  of  journeys  every  year.  A  large 
number  travel  very  frequently,  but  are  generally  at 
home  and,  as  the  average  does  not  exceed  twenty 
single  or  ten  return  journeys  per  annum  for  each  of 
the  whole  population,  it  is  evident  that  the  mass  use 
the  rail  very  seldom." 

The  people  of  the  United  States  take  hardly  half 
as  many  railroad  trips  during  the  year  as  do  their 
English  brethren.  Our  60,000,000  people,  with 
their  170,000  miles  of  railway,  took  less  than  532,- 
000,000  railway  trips  in  1891,  as  against  over  845,- 
000,000  by  the  English  with  less  than  half  our 
population,  and  with  less  than  one-eighth  of  the 
railway  facilities.  Will  you  have  the  reason  for  it  ? 
Is  it  not  manifestly  due  to  the  cheap  fares  on  the 
English  workingmen's  trains  and  to  their  number- 
less excursion  trains? 

The  Great  Eastern  Railway  runs  forty-nine 
Workmen's  Trains,  and  issues  12,000  workmen's 
return  tickets  per  day,  besides  5830  half- fare 
tickets,  19,000  penny  tickets,  and  9500  two-penny 
tickets.  The  fare  between  Enfield  and  London, 
ten  miles,  is  only  two  cents.  And  the  Great  East- 
ern Railway  has  largely  profited  by  its  low  work- 
men's fares.1  In  some  cases  first-class  passengers 

1  See  page  149,  National  Railways,  by  James  Hole. 


136  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

can  travel  by  express  trains  in  England  at  one-fifth 
of  a  penny  (two  fifths  of  a  cent)  per  mile.  Is  it  not 
certain  that,  with  five-cent  fares  per  trip,  by  ordi- 
nary cars,  on  way  trains  and  with  Corresponding 
fares  by  express  (say  twenty  per  cent,  higher,  as  in 
Hungary),  the  most  of  us  would  increase  our  rail- 
way journeys  tenfold?  The  people  living  along 
the  lines  of  the  Manhattan  Elevated  Road  of  New 
York,  take  on  an  average,  113  trips  on  that  road  in 
the  course  of  a  year.  Is  there  not  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  patrons  of  all  our  great  railways 
would  make  a  similar  use  of  railway  facilities  if 
they  could  pay  the  taxes  levied  ? 

If  the  average  trip  of  the  Connecticut  traveller 
fell  to  ten  miles  (it  is  less  than  twelve  miles  on  the 
New  England,  and  only  about  seventeen  miles  on 
the  Consolidated),  then  the  proposed  five-cent 
grouped  rate,  on  way  trains,  would  be  just  one  half 
a  cent  a  mile,  a  little  more  than  the  average  rate 
charged  commuters  on  the  Consolidated  Road  in 
1892  (3^0  of  a  cent  a  mile),  and  just  about  the  rate 
which  has  proved  so  successful  in  filling  the  trains 
of  India,  where  the  average  train-load  is  nearly  six 
times  what  it  is  here,  250  passengers  as  against  44 
in  this  country. 

And  why  should  we  not  enjoy  as  low  rates  as 
the  people  of  India  ?  Our  roads  have  cost  far  less, 
and  the  expense  of  their  operation  ought  to  be  no 
higher,  certainly  not  on  account  of  our  higher 
wages,  for  the  American  railway  employee,  like  the 
American  in  almost  every  other  branch  of  employ- 


AND   PASSENGER  POST.  137 

ment,  is  the  cheapest  laborer  on  earth.  He  earns 
for  his  employer  full  fifty  per  cent,  more  than  his 
English  brother  ;  and  the  American  will  accom- 
plish yet  greater  results  when  once  the  wonderful 
machinery  intrusted  to  his  care  is  run  according 
to  the  law  of  its  being.  Recent  improvements  on 
the  New  York  Central  have  reduced  the  number 
of  hands  on  through  freights  one  third,  while  at  the 
same  time  doubling  the  capacity  of  the  freight 
equipment.  The  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Texas  road 
can  haul  1000  tons  as  against  550  four  years  ago. 
The  train  load  which  was  twenty  is  now  thirty-five 
cars  on  the  most  of  its  line.  As  for  the  future  the 
possible  advance  in  the  reduction  of  expenses  and 
in  the  increased  usefulness  of  our  railway  system 
is  immeasurable. 

Extend  the  sphere  of  the  Post-office  to  cover 
the  whole  realm  of  railway  transportation  and,  if 
experience  teaches  anything,  we  may  reasonably 
expect  that  the  movement  of  freight  and  of  pas- 
sengers will  treble  and  quadruple,  with  very  little 
increase  in  any  class  of  expenditure.  It  may  even 
be  accompanied  with  an  actual  decrease  of  ex- 
penses. The  one  grand  difference  will  be  that  cars 
that  now  go  three  fourths  empty  will  then  go  full, 
and  locomotives  which  now  run  with  almost  no 
loads  behind  them  will'  haul  trains  well  up  to  their 
capacity.  In  any  case  no  harm  can  befall  the  rail- 
roads from  the  proposed  scheme.  Whatever  be  the 
risks  involved  they  will  be  borne  by  the  people. 
Our  common  interest  demands  that  our  wonder- 


138  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

working  circulating  system  shall  be  kept  in  the 
best  possible  condition,  while  it  should  be  used  to 
its  utmost  capacity,  and  common  honesty  demands 
that  both  the  labor  expended  in  bringing  it  into 
being  and  the  labor  employed  in  its  operation, 
should  receive  a  generous  recompense. 

The  Government,  therefore,  representing  the 
people,  will,  by  solemn  contract,  guarantee  both  to 
the  railroads  and  to  railroad  employees  a  fair  re- 
turn for  their  services,  and  in  the  distribution  of 
the  revenues  received  from  its  postal  transporta- 
tion taxes  it  will  do  what  Mr.  Depew promises  to  do, 
if  he  is  made  absolute  ruler  of  our  circulating  sys- 
tem and  of  the  country.  The  Government  will 
transfer  from  its  general  money  pool  (a  pool  in- 
cluding all  the  receipts  from  the  use  of  the  rail- 
ways) to  the  treasuries  of  the  weaker  and  the 
stronger  lines  alike,  sufficient  moneys  to  insure 
their  support,  to  each  according  to  its  necessities, 
just  as  it  now  transfers  money  from  the  present  pos- 
tal pool  for  the  support  of  the  different  post-offices.1 

Under  such  a  scheme,  the  failure  of  a  railway 
company  will  be  next  to  impossible  ;  the  possible 
savings  both  to  the  railways  and  to  the  country 
will  run  up  to  scores,  if  not  to  hundreds  of  millions. 
Railroad  managers  will  indeed  be  deprived  of  their 
power  to  tax  the  public,  but  they  will  be  left  with 
all  the  power  necessary  for  the  performance  of 

1  Statement  of  Chauncey  M.  Depew  before  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Committee,  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  6, 
1893,  page  6. 


AND   PASSENGER  POST.  139 

their  duties  to  their  stockholders  and  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  public,  and,  according  to  Mr.  Depew, 
they  were  quite  ready,  a  year  or  two  ago,  to  ac- 
cept this  position,  for  he  said,  in  hi?  address  before 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Committee  of  Congress 
already  quoted,  "  The  railroad  managers  of  the 
United  States  are  now  unanimous  in  the  belief  that 
the  best  thing  that  could  happen  for  the  country 
and  for  the  railways  would  be  to  strengthen  the 
hands  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  "  ; 
and,  finally,  he  said  :  "  Now,  we  do  not  care,  as 
railways,  how  much  power  you  clothe  the  Commis- 
sion with.  All  we  do  ask  is  that,  since  the  Govern- 
ment undertakes  to  regulate  the  railways,  it  will 
regulate  them  upon  the  intelligent  lines  that  ex- 
perience has  proved  to  be  the  only  ones  upon 
which  they  can  be  operated."  And  experience  in 
the  transportation  of  letters  and  newspapers  and 
of  general  merchandise  by  the  different  govern- 
ments of  the  earth,  and  in  the  transportation  of 
general  freight  and  of  passengers,  in  the  instances 
cited,  certainly  indicates  that  the  ideal  system  sug- 
gested by  the  acts  of  the  railroad  managers  them- 
selves, and  elaborated  in  this  book,  is  the  only 
system  that  is  at  this  time  at  once  practical  and  just. 
The  rates  under  thi-s  proposed  scheme  being  in 
general  those  now  charged  for  the  shortest  distance 
for  each  particular  service  (any  higher  rates  would 
certainly  be  both  unjust  and  impracticable),  the 
uniform  fare  on  way  passenger  trains,  ordinary  cars, 
will  be  five  cents  per  trip,  but  there  is  every  reason 


140  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

to  believe  that  after  a  little  while  even  this  tax 
may  be  lowered.  The  electric  cars  on  some  of  the 
lines  of  Savannah,  Geo.,  were  run  at  one-cent  fares 
for  six  months  of  1894,  and  with  an  undoubted 
profit,  for  they  earned  from  $15  to  $18  a  day  as 
against  a  cost  that  could  have  hardly  been  more 
than  $10  to  $12.  One-cent  fares  are  by  no  means 
an  impossibility  on  our  way  railway  trains,  when 
once  they  are  run  in  the  public  interest. 

Persons  travelling  without  baggage  ought  not  to 
pay  for  the  transportation  of  other  people's  property, 
and  there  should  therefore  be  a  small  tax  (five 
cents,  perhaps)  for  each  piece  of  regulation  size 
and  weight  placed  in  a  baggage  car.  The  Post- 
office  will  carry  such  pieces  from  domicile  to 
domicile  for  not  over  20  cents,  and  perhaps  for  10 
cents.  Express  companies  carry  parcels  from 
the  domicile  in  New  Haven  to  domicile  in  New 
York  for  25  cents  a  parcel,  and  the  Post-office, 
doing  a  larger  business  and  with  better  arrange- 
ments than  the  express  companies,  will  he  able  to 
carry  pieces  of  baggage  of  a  reasonable  size  and 
weight  cheaper  than  the  express  companies  now 
carry  small  parcels.  The  average  trip  of  a  passen- 
ger, it  is  to  be  remembered,  is  less  than  27  miles, 
in  the  whole  country.  In  the  populous  districts,  as, 
for  instance,  on  the  1500  miles  of  the  Consolidated 
Road  of  Connecticut,  the  average  trip  is  only 
about  17  miles,  and  baggage  goes  only  the  same 
distance  as  its  owner. 

Palace-car  travellers,  we   are  told,  do  not   pay 


AND    PASSENGER   POST. 


141 


one  half  the  cost  of  their  transportation,  and  yet 
these  are  the  travellers  best  able  to  bear  the  burden 
of  railway  expenditure  ;  their  cars  weigh  at  least 
a  third  more  then  ordinary  cars  ;  they  cost  a  third 
more,  while  they  carry  hardly  half  as  many  passen- 
gers. Palace-car  fares  ought  certainly  to  be  from 
four  to  six  times  ordinary  fares.  Even  in  this  case, 
however,  this  class  of  fares  will  probably  be  lower 
than  they  are  to-day.  If  palace  cars  and  sleeping 
cars  do  not  pay  there  are  two  reasons  for  it  :  first, 
the  unnecessarily  high  prices  paid  by  the  railways 
to  such  private  concerns  as  the  Pullman  Car  Com- 
pany for  the  use  of  its  cars  ;  and,  second,  the  fares 
which  are  so  high  that  only  one  seat  in  six,  per- 
haps, is  occupied.  Those  whose  "  good-will  "  is 
lightly  regarded  by  our  railway  managers  cannot 
afford  to  travel  in  palace  cars. 

It  was  for  the  common  interest,  however,  that 
railways  were  built,  and  the  common  interest  de- 
mands the  extension  of  the  sphere  of  the  Post- 
office  to  cover  this  whole  business,  with  passenger 
and  freight  schedules,  something  as  follows  : 

PASSENGER  SCHEDULE.  FARES  PER  TRIP. 

Way  trains,  ordinary  or  second-class 


cars 

Palace  or  first-class  cars. 

Baggage,  per  piece,  regu- 
lation size  and  weight 
or  less,  per  railway 
trip 

Baggage,  domicile  to 
domicile,  by  post .... 


•30 


•05 

.20    tO 


•05 


.10  to    .20 


I42  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

with  corresponding  higher  fares  for  fast  trains  mak- 
ing few  stops.  (The  fares,  by  express  trains,  in 
Hungary  are  20  per  cent,  higher  than  by  ordinary 
trains.)  On  such  trains  as  the  New  York  Limited, 
making  stops  only  about  once  in  125  miles,  the 
fares  might  be,  perhaps,  $1.00  by  ordinary  cars, 
and  $5.00  to  $6.00  by  palace  cars.  And  instead  of 
the  present  cumbersome  system  of  freight  taxes, 
with  its  scores  of  millions  of  different  rates  (the 
London  &  Northwestern  Railway  of  England,  as 
we  have  seen,  has  30,000,000  different  rates,  and 
on  the  entire  railway  system  of  England  there  are 
said  to  be  over  250,000,000),  instead  of  this  system, 
with  its  expensive  rate  sheets,  and  its  classes,  based 
on  values,  we  should  have  but  a  single  freight 
schedule  covering  the  whole  country,  and  yet  at 
once  so  short  and  so  simple  that  a  child  would  be 
able  to  understand  it.  Private  freight  cars  would 
be  abolished. 

On  open  cars,  coal  cars  and  the  like,  loaded  and 
unloaded  by  shippers  and  consignees,  there  would 
be  a  uniform  standard  rate  of  say  $6.00  per  haul 
per  car  of  standard  capacity,  and  for  box  cars,  oil 
cars  and  the  like,  a  rate  of  perhaps  $8.00,  in  all 
cases  regardless  of  the  amount  of  the  load,  up 
to  the  car's  capacity,  and  regardless  of  classifica- 
tion.1 The  time  limit  for  loading  and  unloading 
would  be  not  over  eight  hours,  the  limit  now  in 
vogue  in  Holland. 

The  grand  purpose  of  this  reform  is  to  secure  to 
the  public  the  greatest  possible  use  of  the  railways, 
1  The  rates  suggested  in  my  Bill  are  $5.00  and  $6.00. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  143 

and  to  this  end  every  car  should  be  sent  from  its 
shipping  point  to  its  destination  by  the  shortest, 
quickest,  and  least  expensive  route,  and  should  be 
detained  at  terminals  for  the  least  possible  time. 
Products  loaded  and  unloaded  by  government 
officials  would  be  packed  according  to  government 
regulations  and  would  pay  the  same  rates,  whatever 
the  quantity.  The  present  complicated  systems  of 
classifying  products  according  to  their  value  would 
pass  away,  and  in  their  stead  we  should  have  a 
single  uniform  system  of  two  or  three  classes  based, 
as  the  new  rates  are  to  be  based,  on  the  cost  of  the 
service  rendered. 

The  scheme  of  classification  suggested  by  A.  J. 
Williams  in  his  State  Appropriation  of  Railways  is 
founded  on  this  principle  and  is  very  sensible.  Mr. 
Williams  proposes  a  division  of  freight  into  three 
classes,  in  the  lowest  of  which  he  would  place  all 
commodities  that  are  practically  undamageable — 
open-car  freight,  coal,  sand,  minerals,  timber,  etc. 
On  these  third-class  products  the  uniform  rate 
might  be  as  low  as  twenty-five  cents  a  ton,  the  rate 
on  the  smallest  package  being,  say,  ten  cents  !  The 
second-class  commodities,  not  readily  damageable, 
would  include  the  great  majority  of  manufactured 
goods,  grain,  etc.,  and  the  rate  on  this  class  should 
certainly  not  be  over  eighty  cents  a  ton,  four  cents 
a  hundred.  First-class  freight  would  include  all 
commodities  readily  damaged  or  perishable,  or 
which  required  extra  care  in  handling,  and  these 
might  pay  the  first-class  rate  now  charged  for  the 


144  A    GENERAL    FREIGHT 

shortest  haul  on  the  Consolidated  Railroad  of 
Connecticut,  six  cents  a  hundred  or  $1.20  a  ton. 

The  still  simpler  two-class  system  of  open  and 
box-car  freight  would,  however,  meet  all  the  de- 
mands of  the  situation,  with  rates  of  twenty-five 
cents  a  ton  in  the  one  case,  and  one  dollar  a  ton  in 
the  other.  It  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  arrange 
for  a  system  of  insurance  for  goods  perishable  or 
easily  damaged. 

Is  this  an  insane  proposition  ?  Is  it  inexpedient  ? 
Will  it  be  impossible  with  such  transportation  taxes 
to  secure  the  necessary  revenues  ? 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  even  now,  with 
average  train-loads  of  but  forty-four  persons,  the 
average  passenger  fare  of  the  country  is  but  fifty- 
three  cents,  and  the  same  locomotive  that  hauls 
these  forty-four  persons  can  haul  five  hundred  at 
practically  the  same  cost.  (The  excursion  trains 
on  the  Cleveland,  Canton,  and  Southern  Railroad, 
in  August,  1895,  hauled  seven  hundred  passengers 
at  very  little  more  cost  than  that  of  their  average 
passenger  trains  and  at  practically  the  same  speed.) 
The  average  passenger  train,  moreover,  can  easily 
make  twice  as  many  trips  during  the  year  as  at 
present.  The  present  average  train-load  of  forty- 
four  persons  earns  on  its  average  26.43-mile  trip 
about  twenty-three  dollars.  A  train  of  one  hundred 
first-class  passengers  at  twenty  cents  a  trip,  and  of 
one  hundred  second-class  passengers  at  five  cents, 
would  earn  twenty-five  dollars  in  the  26.43-mile 
journey  ;  but  these  rates  would  so  stimulate  the 


AND  PASSENGER   POST.  145 

short-distance  travel  that,  under  such  conditions, 
the  train  would  probably  empty  itself  every  thirteen 
miles,  and  the  return  would  probably  be  nearer 
fifty  dollars  than  twenty-five  dollars. 

The  waste  of  power  and  of  equipment  under  our 
present  railway  regime  is  really  criminal.  The 
average  loads  of  our  great  passenger  locomotives 
are  hardly  up  to  the  hauling  capacity  of  a  pair  of 
mules,  and  yet  every  excursion  proves  that  the 
people  would  fill  the  trains  if  only  the  regular  rates 
were  within  their  ability.  What  inducement  is 
there  for  a  man  to  seek  employment  an  hour's 
journey  from  his  home  when  the  transportation 
tax  to  and  fro  would  take  every  cent  he  could  earn 
in  ten  hours  ?  What  were  railroads  built  for  ?  To 
encourage  travel  or  to  hinder  it  ?  To  enable  men 
to  move  themselves  and  their  products  at  the  least 
possible  cost,  or  to  keep  the  cost  of  transportation 
just  as  near  as  possible  to  that  by  ox-team  and 
human  burden  bearer  ?  Think  of  freight  cars 
creeping  over  the  country  at  the  snail's-pace  of 
only  twenty  miles  a  day,  and  with  loads  of  little 
over  three  tons  l  ;  and  yet  that  was  the  condition  of 
things  in  1893,  and  in  1894  our  1,205,169  freight 
cars  earned  on  an  average  less  than  $1.90  a  day, 
and  handled  less  than  ten  and  a  half  tons  of  freight 
a  week.  Would  not  he  be  a  very  poor  farmer  who 
failed  to  get  as  much  out  of  his  ox-team  ? 

1  See  Railway  Review,  Nov.  18,  1893,  p.  692  ;  Aug.  4, 1894, 
p.  448. 


146  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

Four  days  out  of  five  our  freight  cars  lie  abso- 
lutely idle,  obstructing  side-tracks  and  rotting  under 
the  influence  of  sun  and  wind  and  rain.  They  will 
not  average  seventy-three  paying  hauls  a  year,  and 
they  earn  less  than  $590  a  year.  "  The  average 
car-movement  of  the  country  is  absurdly  small," 
says  the  editor  of  the  Railway  Review,  "  and  it  is 
so  mainly  because  of  the  misuse  of  the  cars  by  the 
railways  themselves." 

The  car  accountant  of  the  West  Shore  Road, 
Mr.  W.  W.  Wheatly,  estimates  the  waste  of  capital 
in  this  misused  equipment  at  over  $124,000,000, 
with  an  interest  account  of  at  least  $5,000,000  and 
an  annual  expenditure  of  about  $10,000,000,  to 
say  nothing  of  track  room  to  hold  them,  locomo- 
tives to  move  them,  and  the  other  minor  but  nec- 
essary expenses  which  their  existence  involves. 
The  number  of  these  idle  freight  cars,  says  Mr. 
Wheatly,  is  about  248,000,  and  yet,  according  to 
Mr.  Aldace  F.  Walker,  railroad  managers  are  pay- 
ing $30,000,000  a  year  for  the  use  of  private  cars.1 

The  demurrage  limit,  that  is,  the  time  allowed 
for  unloading  a  freight  car  in  New  England,  is 
ninety-six  hours,  and  as  much  more  time  may  be 
taken  for  loading.  In  slow  Old  England,  and  on 
occasion  in  New  York,  they  take  less  time  to 
handle  the  cargo  of  a  great  ship.  On  one  of  her 
trips  the  Paris  arrived  alongside  her  quay,  at 
Southampton,  at  7.30  P.M.  of  a  Wednesday  evening. 

1  See  Railway  Review,  Sept.  3,  1892,  and  Oct.  7,  1893. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  147 

Within  thirteen  and  one-half  minutes  her  465  bags 
of  mail  were  landed  and  despatched  by  a  special 
train  to  London.  At  7.40  P.M.  her  passengers  be- 
gan to  disembark,  and  at  8.15  P.M.  they  left  on 
another  train.  At  10  P.M.  the  Paris  commenced 
unloading  her  cargo,  and  in  the  course  of  Thurs- 
day she  was  cleared  out.  She  took  on  board  2400 
tons  of  coal,  and,  if  it  had  not  been  for  her  extra- 
ordinarily large  return  cargo,  she  would  have  been 
ready  for  sea  on  Friday  evening.  As  it  was,  she 
sailed  on  Saturday  at  mid-day,  less  than  sixty-six 
hours  after  her  arrival,  with  250  saloon  passengers, 
with  her  saloon  berths  all  occupied,  and  with  a  fair 
complement  of  third-class  passengers. 

The  Parts,  at  her  English  terminus,  handles  her 
thousands  of  tons  of  cargo,  her  hundreds  of  bags 
of  mail,  and  her  crowds  of  passengers,  in  less  time 
than  it  takes  to  handle  the  load  of  a  petty  freight 
car  in  New  England,  and  she  makes  her  thousands 
of  miles  across  the  Atlantic  almost  as  quickly  as 
the  average  American  freight  car  makes  its  baby 
trip  of  126  miles. 

The  unloading  and  loading  of  a  great  ship  is 
done  in  New  York  quite  as  quickly  as  on  the  other 
side  of  the  water.  On  one  of  her  trips,  the  Berlin 
arrived  at  her  American  terminus  at  8  P.M.  ;  by  i 
o'clock  P.M.  of  the  following  day,  within  less  than 
eight  hours  of  daylight,  she  had  discharged  her 
load  of  imports,  shipped  1150  tons  of  coal,  taken 
on  her  cargo  of  exports,  and  sailed  for  England. 

It  certainly  ought  not  to  take  over  eight  hours  of 


148  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

daylight  to  load  and  unload  a  freight  car.  I  have 
seen  thirty-ton  coal  cars  loaded,  in  Boston,  in  less 
than  one  hour. 

Our  total  railroad  freight  revenues  for  the  year 
ending  June  30,  1894,  were  $699,490,913,  less  than 
$1.10  per  ton  for  the  638,186,553  tons  handled. 

If  the  1,205,169  cars  belonging  to  the  railroads 
had  made  but  two  paying  hauls  a  week  in  that 
year,  at  $7.00  per  car  per  haul,  they  would  have 
earned  over  $877,000,000,  and  an  average  load  of 
twelve  tons,  at  an  average  rate  of  but  60  cents  a 
ton,  would  have  produced  $7.20  per  car. 

Is  there  anything  so  very  wild  in  a  plan  that 
leaves  first-class  freight  at  $1.20  a  ton,  second-class 
at  80  cents,  and  the  cheapest  service  at  40  cents  a 
ton  ?  Is  there  anything  so  very  extravagant  in  the 
statement  that  under  the  equitable  rule  of  the 
Post-office,  with  cars  sent  straight  from  shipping 
point  to  destination  over  the  most  economical 
route,  at  the  highest  economical  speed,  and  un- 
loaded and  loaded  in  eight  hours,  it  would  be 
possible  for  our  freight  equipment  to  earn  an  ample 
revenue  at  rates  of  from  $6  to  $8  per  haul  per 
car  ?  Is  there  really  anything  impracticable  in 
the  scheme  for  a  two-class  freight  system,  with 
general  merchandise  at  $i  a  ton,  and  minerals  at 
twenty-five  cents  a  ton,  per  haul  ?  Is  there  not, 
indeed,  every  reason  to  believe  that,  after  a  very 
brief  experience  under  such  a  regime,  there  would 
be  an  enormous  increase  in  the  net  earnings  both 
of  the  railways  and  of  the  people,  and  in  a  short 


AND   PASSENGER   POST.  149 

time  it  would  be  possible  to  even  lower  these 
rates. 

The  advantages  of  this  reform  ought,  it  seems  to 
me,  to  be  patent  to  every  one.  Every  station,  and 
every  man  at  every  station  in  the  country,  would 
be  on  a  par  with  every  other  as  to  passenger  and 
freight  rates.  Discriminations  between  individuals 
and  between  places  would  be  forever  at  an  end. 
The  great  cities  would  no  longer  grow  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  intervening  country.  The -crowding 
of  men  and  women  and  little  children  into  narrow 
and  dirty  alleys,  in  order  that  they  may  be  near 
the  great  factories  where  they  must  labor,  would 
soon  come  to  an  end,  for  the  factories  would  move 
out  into  the  open  country,  where  land  is  less  ex- 
pensive, and  where  their  operatives,  enjoying  some- 
thing of  God's  green  earth  and  clear  sky,  would  do 
better  work  and  would  get  something  of  happiness 
out  of  life.  There  would  be  no  more  rebates,  no 
more  deadheads.  Great  armies  of  soliciting  agents 
would  disappear.  Freight  stamps  (for  freight  taxes 
would  be  paid  in  advance)  and  baggage  stamps 
and  passenger  tickets  would  be  on  sale  at  drug 
stores,  hotels,  and  other  convenient  places,  as  or- 
dinary postage  stamps  are  to-day.  Cut-rate  ticket 
offices  would  be  abandoned.  Speculation  in  rail- 
way rates  would  cease,  for  the  tariffs,  once  adopted 
by  the  government,  would  be  changed  only  after 
due  deliberation  and  with  the  full  knowledge  of 
the  whole  people. 

The  adoption  of  this  scheme  and  of  a  low  cus- 


150  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

torn  tariff  would  go  far  towards  settling  the  trust 
business.  Combinations  of  producers  would  do 
little  harm  if  the  consumer  could  supply  his  wants 
from  the  farthest  station,  and  from  the  smallest  pro- 
ducer, at  the  same  freight  rate  as  from  the  biggest 
trust  at  the  next  railway  station.  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  make  a  corner  on  coal,  if  the  freight  rate 
from  every  station  in  the  United  States  to  every 
other  were  not  over  $6.00  per  carload  of  thirty 
tons,  and  if  every  small  coal  miner  in  the  country 
were  insured  equal  facilities  with  his  big  neighbor 
in  getting  his  product  to  market.  But  if  at  any 
time  there  should  be  a  coal  combination  that  in- 
cluded all  the  coal  mines  in  the  United  States,  then 
we  could  join  with  other  civilized  governments  in  an 
international  transportation  arrangement,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  International  Post,  under  which  we 
could  supply  our  wants  from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
The  application  of  the  postal  principle  to  public 
transportation,  under  the  control  of  the  Post-office, 
would  make  the  people  once  more  masters  both  of 
the  political  and  the  industrial  situation.  Coal 
trusts  and  iron  trusts — all  sorts  of  trusts,  indeed, 
would  find  it  to  their  interest  not  to  restrict,  but  to 
increase,  their  outputs.  It  would  not  pay,  under 
such  a  system,  to  shut  down  factories,  close  up 
mines,  or  to  destroy  farm  products,  as  the  old 
Dutch  monopolists  did  at  one  time  in  the  East 
Indies,  with  the  intent  of  bringing  about  a  scarcity 
of  the  necessities  of  life  and  consequent  high  prices 
and  low  wages. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  I$I 

We  hear  much  nowadays  of  over-production,  but 
it  is  all  nonsense.  We  are  not  suffering  from 
over-production,  but  from  under-distribution  and 
over-taxation,  from  laws  and  customs  that  fetter 
trade  and  burden  industry.  We  are  suffering  most 
of  all,  however,  I  think,  in  this  country,  from  a 
system  of  managing  our  great  post-roads  under 
which  one  man,  the  farmer  of  the  taxes  on  say 
5000  miles  of  these  roads,  may  decree  which  out  of 
say  a  thousand  cities  and  villages  in  his  territory 
shall  prosper  and  which  shall  not,  and  which  out 
of  say  10,000  individuals  doing  business  in  those 
cities  and  villages  shall  make  a  living  or  shall  be 
reduced  to  beggary. 

This  world  is  filled  with  people,  half  clothed, 
half  fed,  ill-sheltered  from  the  summer's  heat  and 
the  winter's  cold.  These  people  are  only  too  anxious 
to  find  occupation,  but  law,  custom,  circumstances, 
all  too  often  deprive  them  of  the  opportunity,  and 
when  the  work  is  found  it  not  infrequently  hap- 
pens that  the  workers  are  robbed  of  their  reward 
by  men  intrusted  with  governmental  powers  like 
those  now  enjoyed  by  our  railway  kings.  The 
problem  is  how  to  abolish  these  cruel  laws  and 
customs  ;  how  to  remove  the  obstacles,  natural  and 
artificial,  which  separate  the  would-be  laborer  from 
the  would-be  employer  ;  and,  finally,  how  to  secure 
equality  of  rights  and  of  privileges  on  our  railways 
and  elsewhere  for  every  human  being.  When  all 
are  equally  free  to  labor  and  to  enjoy  the  products 
of  their  labor,  there  will  no  longer  be  any  cry  of 


152  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

over-production  on  the  one  hand  or  of  starvation  on 
the  other. 

I  can  think  of  nothing  that  would  do  so  much  to 
bring  about  this  happy  state  of  things  as  the  exten- 
sion of  the  sphere  of  the  Post-office  over  the  general 
business  of  public  transportation.  But  of  all  the 
benefits  that  will  accompany  the  new  regime,  the 
greatest  perhaps  is  this  :  it  will  at  once  deprive 
our  railway  corporations  of  their  power  to  do  evil, 
and  will  make  them  public  servants,  dependent 
for  their  corporate  existence  upon  their  perform- 
ance of  their  public  duties  to  the  public  satisfac- 
tion. The  consolidation  of  railway  systems  must, 
I  believe,  continue  until  all  our  post-roads  are  both 
owned  and  managed  by  the  National  Government. 
The  movement  must,  however,  proceed  step  by 
step  ;  first  one  road  or  system  must  be  taken  by  the 
government  and  then  another.  If,  in  the  mean- 
time, the  New  York  Central  or  the  Pennsylvania 
gradually  widens  the  sphere  of  its  operations  until 
the  one  absorbs  the  other,  the  result  will  only  be 
for  the  public  benefit.  Let  the  government  once 
assume  its  legitimate  function  of  determining,  col- 
lecting, and  distributing  transportation  taxes  and 
there  will  be  comparatively  little  trouble  in  solving 
the  rest  of  the  railroad  problem. 

Take  from  the  railway  manager  his  imperial  power 
of  giving  passes  and  granting  rebates  ;  his  power 
to  discriminate  between  individuals  and  between 
places  ;  subject  him  to  the  terms  of  a  traffic  con- 
tract drawn  up  between  himself  and  the  National 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  153 

Government,  and  he  will  no  longer  be  able  to  cor- 
rupt legislatures  and  bulldoze  private  citizens  ;  he 
will  no  longer  be  able  to  build  up  one  city  and  ruin 
another.  Under  the  new  conditions,  every  con- 
solidation would  be  for  the  public  good  as  well  as 
for  the  advantage  of  the  railroads.  These  consoli- 
dations would  lessen  railway  expenses  and  increase 
business  facilities.  Government  patronage,  it  is 
true,  would  somewhat  increase  under  the  new 
regime,  but  it  would  not  increase  anything  like  so 
much  as  railroad  patronage  would  diminish.  The 
patronage  of  such  a  ruler  as  President  Roberts  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  with  his  100,000  sub- 
ordinates is,  I  submit,  an  infinitely  greater  danger 
to  both  our  industrial  and  political  liberties  than 
is  or  ever  can  be  the  patronage  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States.  Hundreds  of  ticket  agents  and 
freight  agents  would  be  relieved  of  their  present 
unpleasant  duties  as  deputy  collectors  of  transpor- 
tation taxes  for  private  railroad  corporations.  The 
remainder  would  serve  as  public  servants,  collect- 
ing a  tax  so  low  and  so  simple  that  their  work 
would  be  a  pleasure  instead  of  a  disagreeable 
burden. 

The  postmen  on  the  trains  would  be  able,  in 
many  cases,  to  attend  to  the  baggage  and  parcels 
business.  Many  of  the  country  stations  would 
become  post-offices,  the  postmaster  being,  at  the 
same  time,  the  freight  and  express  agent.  This 
would  effect  a  large  saving  of  moneys  now  paid  for 
the  carriage  of  the  mails  to  post-offices,  and  would 


154  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

facilitate  the  plan  for  the  free  distribution  and 
collection  of  mail  matter  in  country  districts. 

"  The  highways  of  nations  are  the  measure  of 
their  civilization.  Without  roads  there  can  be  no 
society,  government,  commerce,  or  intelligence. 
In  exact  proportion  to  the  abundance  and  excel- 
lence of  highways  (and  in  exact  proportion  to  the 
cost  of  transportation  on  those  highways)  are  the 
exchanges  of  services  between  men,  the  communi- 
cation of  thought,  the  augmentation  of  wealth,  the 
growth  of  comfort,  the  development  and  the  con- 
solidation of  the  civilized  state."  l 

"  From  a  polyp  up  to  man  the  increasing  per- 
fection of  the  circulating  system  marks  the  increas- 
ing activity  of  life,  the  more  perfect  interdependence 
of  the  various  parts  of  the  organization,  a  wider 
range  of  sympathies,  and  an  increasing  ability  to 
dominate  natural  surroundings.  From  the  savage 
who  lives  without  any  interest  in  the  rest  of  the 
world,  confined  to  his  own  horde,  and  wandering 
through  the  trackless  forests,  up  to  the  present 
condition  of  society,  with  its  iron  roads,  like 
arteries  carrying  the  material  for  social  life  where 
it  is  called  for,  and  with  its  telegraphs  and  tele- 
phones extending  like  a  network  of  nerves,  bear- 
ing prompt  intelligence  to  the  centres  of  all  that 
affects  the  parts,  the  history  of  the  increasing 
perfection  of  the  means  of  transportation  and 

1  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Committee  on  Pacific  Railways,  made 
Feb.  19,  1869. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  155 

of   communication,    is   the   history    of   all  human 
advancement."  * 

The  extension  of  the  sphere  of  the  Post-office  to 
cover  the  entire  business  of  public  transportation, 
and  the  application  of  the  cost  of  service  principle 
to  the  determination  of  rates  is  surely  the  next 
great  step  in  this  advancement. 

1  Westminster  Review  (slightly  changed),  Jan.,  1871. 


156  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    UNITED    RAILWAYS    OF    AMERICA 

VS. 
THE    UNITED    STATES   OF    AMERICA. 

SINCE  mankind  were  first  welded  into  nations, 
the  Highway  has  always  been  the  symbol  of  Gov- 
ernment and  THE  OWNER  OF  THE  HIGHWAY  HAS 
BEEN  THE  GOVERNMENT.  This  was  true  of  the 
ancient  Oriental  Empires;  it  was  pre-eminently 
true  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Some  incidental  ad- 
vantages may  have  accrued  to  the  Roman  subject 
from  the  Roman  Road,  but  its  primary  purpose  was 
to  facilitate  the  movements  of  the  Emperor's  troops 
and  of  the  tribute  exacted  by  those  troops  from  the 
Emperor's  subjects.  '  To  the  Oriental  mind," 
says  Trumbull,  "  a  Road,  the  King's  Highway, 
included  the  idea  of  a  kingdom  planned  and  a 
kingdom  controlled.  Again,  it  included  the  idea 
of  a  Personal  Sovereign,  of  a  Sovereign  whose  Plan 
is  back  of  the  Highway  and  whose  Purpose  is  be- 
fore it.  In  the  earliest  empire  in  history,  the 
symbol  of  Royal  Greatness  was  Royal  Road-Build- 
ing. The  ancient  Oriental  idea  of  a  road,  an  idea 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


which  still  has  large  prominence  in  the  East  and 
elsewhere,  is  of  the  Highway  of  the  King.  Roads 
were  originally  built  by  the  King,  for  the  King, 
and  they  were  kept  in  repair  or  put  in  repair  as  the 
King  had  need  of  them.  Roads  had  their  inciden- 
tal advantages  for  the  King's  subjects,  but  only  by 
the  King's  grace."  —  Trumbull's  Studies  of  Oriental 
Life,  pages  223,  228. 

The  same  thought  is  expressed  in  equally  vivid 
language  by  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  in  his  study  of  the 
modern  Occident,  entitled  Wealth  vs.  Common- 
wealth. "  Ownership  of  the  highways  ends  in  the 
ownership  of  every-thing  and  every-body  that  must 
use  the  highways,"  and,  in  proof  of  this  statement, 
he  recites  the  story  of  the  great  American  trusts, 
every  one  of  which  seems  to  have  owed  its  quick 
growth  to  the  grace  of  some  railway  king.  The 
tendency  of  the  system  is  obvious.  "  Grain,"  says 
Mr.  Lloyd,  "  is  fated  to  go  the  way  that  oil,  hard 
coal,  cattle,  and  meat  have  already  gone.  The 
farmer  may  remain  the  nominal  owner  of  his  farm, 
but  he  will  be  the  real  owner  of  nothing  but  the 
paper  title.  First,  the  product  of  the  farm,  then 
the  farm.  In  America,  rises  the  shadow  of  a  coming 
land  ownership  more  concentrated,  more  cruel,  with 
the  impersonal  cruelty  of  corporate  anonymity,  than 
the  world  has  yet  seen." 

To  the  same  purport  is  the  following  quotation 
from  the  conservative  New  York  Evening  Post,  to 
the  effect  that  the  late  manager  of  a  certain  railway, 
and  president  of  a  joint  traffic  association  had  pre- 


158  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

sided  at  the  birth  of  the  mammoth  steel  trust,  and 
that  it  only  broke  up  as  a  result  of  his  death. 

"  A  certain  railway  corporation  was  interested  in 
the  [steel]  rail-works  at  Scranton  and  another  in 
the  Bethlehem  works,  while  the  Chicago  roads  were 
naturally  interested  in  the  Chicago  works.  The 
rail-makers  showed  the  railroads  the  cost  of  the 
rails,  and  the  officers  of  these  railroad-companies 
added  three  dollars  a  ton  for  profits,  thus  establish- 
ing the  price.  The  deceased  manager  had  the 
most  important  part  in  fixing  this  policy  and  prac- 
tice. His  view  was  to  allow  a  fair  profit  and  to 
distribute  the  orders  among  the  existing  works,  so 
that  all  could  run  moderately. ' ' — It.  It.  Gazette, 
March  5,  1897.  And  he  succeeded.  He  pre- 
vented the  mills  from  running  immoderately,  and 
he  also  prevented  the  railroads  (outside  the  ring) 
from  getting  rails  at  too  moderate  prices  ;  he  like- 
wise prevented  the  workmen  in  the  rail  mills  from 
earning  immoderate  wages.  And,  had  he  been  in 
active  command,  his  decision  as  to  the  price  of 
rails  would  have  been  law,  but  he  died.  The  prices 
of  rails,  no  longer  controlled  by  his  ALL-POWERFUL 
HAND,  fell  almost  at  once  and  as  a  consequence  of 
the  fall  in  price,  there  came,  in  a  few  short  weeks, 
orders  for  nearly  830,000  tons,  orders  to  set  idle 
men  at  work  making  rails  and  to  provide  occupa- 
tion for  thousands  of  other  idle  men  at  laying 
these  low-priced  rails  on  the  National  Highways. 
Whether  lower  transport  taxes  will  follow  the  use 
of  the  lower-cost  highways  remains  to  be  seen. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  I $9 

"  The  King  is  dead,  long  live  the  King."  The 
successor  of  this  fallen  monarch  of  the  West  at  his 
coronation  addressed  his  court  in  language  of 
which  the  following  is  a  fair  interpretation:  The 
business  of  the  Association  at  Washington,  known  as 
The  Government  of  The  United  States  of  America, 
is  of  some  importance,  but  The  Government  of  The 
United  Railways  of  America — a  certain  traffic  asso- 
ciation— is  "  quite  as  important  to  the  stability  of 
credit,  to  the  industries,  and  to  the  commercial 
prosperity  of  the  country.  So  far  as  I  can,  as 
President,  my  best  efforts  will  be  given  to  carry 
out  the  purposes  for  which  this  Association  was 
formed  and  with  which  I  am  in  the  heartiest 
sympathy  and  accord." — The  Mail  and  Express, 
March  3,  1897.  But  this  language  was  modest  com- 
pared with  his  interview  published  in  the  New  York 
World,  of  April  i,  1897,  just  after  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  had  declared  the  Gov- 
ernment of  The  United  Railways  unconstitutional 
and  unlawful.  On  this  occasion,  the  Lord  of  the 
American  Highways  said  bluntly  that  his  business 
of  regulating  the  movements  of  persons  and  of  pro- 
duce on  these  Royal-Railed  Highways  had  a 
"  more  important  bearing  upon  the  return  of  pros- 
perity a  hundred  times  over  than  the  legislation  for 
which  this  extra  session  [of  Congress]  had  been 
called."  And  he  is  right.  The  Iron  Hand  of  the 
Ruler  of  the  National  Highways,  ever  upon  the 
nation's  pulse,  regulating  at  his  will  the  flow  of 
the  nation's  life-blood,  has  an  infinitely  greater  in- 


l6o  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

fluence  upon  the  public  convenience,  the  public 
security,  and  the  public  prosperity  than  do  the 
acts  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 

The  relation  of  the  two  is  well  brought  out  in  the 
first  of  Joint  Traffic  Commissioner  Blanchard's 
articles  on  "  Railway  Pools,  Their  Equity  and 
Public  Value,"  the  article  in  which  he  compares 
the  taxes  levied  by  the  Government  of  The  United 
Railways  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 
During  the  years  1894-95-96,  the  gross  amount  of 
taxes  levied  on  the  people  by  the  Government  of 
The  United  States  was  $1,072,651,000;  the  trans- 
port taxes  levied  for  the  same  period,  by  The  United 
Railways,  amounted  to  $3,408,200,000,  or  three 
times  as  much. 

Again,  while  the  outstanding  bonds  of  the  United 
States  amount  to  but  $847,364,460,  the  bonds  of 
The  United  Railways  amount  to  $5,641,000,000, 
about  seven  times  as  much.  Legitimate  and  so- 
called  watered  stocks — Railroad  Paper  money — 
are  roundly,  at  par,  $5,000,000,000  more.  The 
interest  on  the  United  States  debt  is  about  $29,000,- 
ooo;  on  The  United  Railway  debt,  about  $2  5  2,000, - 
ooo,  and  both  are  paid  by  the  people.  And  the 
Government  of  The  United  Railways  surpasses  the 
Government  of  The  United  States  as  much  in 
the  variety  of  taxes  levied  as  in  other  character- 
istics. "  There  are  not  less  than  two  million 
freight  rates  and  passenger  fares  in  this  country, 
applicable  to  Interstate  Traffic,"  says  Mr.  Blanch- 
ard,  and  who  can  enumerate  the  scores  of  millions 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  l6l 

of  tariffs  levied  by  our  railway  monarchs  within  the 
different  States  ? 

This  mighty  power,  moreover,  is  rapidly  concen- 
trating itself  in  fewer  and  fewer  hands.  In  its  issue 
of  April  2,  1897,  the  Railway  Age  reported  a  certain 
capitalist  as  saying  that  one  third  of  the  railway 
mileage — highway  mileage — of  the  United  States 
is  now  in  one  great  railway  pool  controlled  by  a 
voting  trust,  and  that  the  basis  of  reorganization 
will  form  a  PROTECTION  against  any  wholesale  re- 
duction of  the  Royal-Railed  Highway  taxes  that 
would  have  taken  place  under  the  Supreme  Court 
decision.  The  power  to  levy  these  highway  taxes 
upon  the  persons  and  produce  of  the  country  has 
been  taken  away  from  freight  agents  and  lodged 
with  the  boards  of  directors  and  railroad  presi- 
dents. He  might  have  added  that,  since  the 
tenure  of  office  of  these  royal  tax-collectors  lay  in 
his  Imperial  hands,  the  taxes  which  they  levied 
were,  in  fact,  decreed  by  his  Imperial  will.  My 
proposition  is  to  take  this  Imperial  power  out  of 
his  hands  and  to  lodge  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
United  States  Congress. 

In  the  North  American  Review,  of  March,  1897, 
James  T.  Wait  speaks  of  the  highway  tariffs  levied 
by  these  gentlemen  as  follows:  "  There  are  some 
cities  and  some  divisions  of  the  country  which  are 
practically  as  much  discriminated  against  as  if  we 
had  a  system  of  protective  tariffs  between  the 
States.  In  many  parts  of  the  country  the  relation 
of  car-load  to  less  than  car-load  rates  is  such  that  a 


1 62  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

large  dealer  is  practically  subsidized  to  the  detri- 
ment of  his  smaller  competitors.  In  extreme  cases, 
there  is  a  difference  of  260  per  cent,  of  the  rate 
and  nearly  the  full  value  of  the  goods.  The  mul- 
tiplicity of  tariffs  is  astounding.  On  one  road — in 
one  pool — of  502  miles  of  track,  there  were  in 
effect,  October  i,  1896,  by  actual  count,  1605 
distinct  publications  dignified  by  the  name  of 
'tariffs,'  and,  in  addition,  numerous  rate  sheets 
and  circulars,  some  of  which,  like  the  Irishman's 
'duck,'  do  not  hold  still  long  enough  to  be 
counted.  The  yearly  printing  bill  of  one  of  our 
large  systems  amounts  to  over  $75,000,  and  their 
printer  has  frequently  $60,000  worth  of  type  kept 
standing  in  form  for  them.  These  tariffs  posted, 
as  required  by  law,  for  the  information  of  the' pub- 
lic, are  practically  a  sealed  book.  They  are  so  in- 
tricate that  the  ordinary  man  can  make  nothing  out 
of  them." 

As  to  the  character  of  these  railway  magnates, 
one  of  their  number,  M.  E.  Ingalls,  writing  in  the 
Engineering  Magazine^  of  July,  1896,  said  that 
before  the  passage  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act, 
many  of  them  had  been  insolent  and  lawless.  For 
a  little  while,  they  obeyed  the  law  of  1887,  but  by 
1895  they  had  become  worse  than  ever.  "  If  the 
railway  business  of  this  country  is  to  be  conducted 
in  the  future,"  said  Mr.  Ingalls,  "as  it  was  to  an 
alarming  extent  for,  we  will  say,  the  two  years  end- 
ing June  30,  1895,  those  of  us  engaged  in  this  pro- 
fession would  lose  the  respect  of  ourselves  and  of 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  163 

our  fellow-citizens,  and  deservedly  so.  These  I 
know  are  strong  words  and  harsh  ones,  but  they 
are  true."  There  had  been  two  grand  causes  for 
these  troubles:  first,  the  inability  of  himself  and 
his  fellow  highway  managers  to  exact  sufficient 
tribute  from  their  subjects,  and,  secondly,  their 
perpetual  disagreements  as  to  a  proper  division  of 
the  spoils.  These  troubles,  however,  were  prob- 
ably at  an  end.  From  the  first  day  of  the  preced- 
ing January,  the  highest  possible  taxes  had  been 
most  scrupulously  exacted  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  under  the  beneficent  offices  of  the 
Government  of  The  United  Railways,  the  spoils 
would  henceforth  be  fairly  apportioned. 

The  advocates  of  the  continuance  of  this  railway 
government  are  wont  to  lay  great  stress  on  the  fact 
that,  in  some  parts  of  the  country  where  the  trans- 
portation business  is  not  yet  pooled,  there  have 
been  some  reductions  in  the  Royal-Railed  Highway 
taxes  in  recent  years.  It  is  only  just  to  these 
gentlemen,  however,  to  say  that  reductions  in 
railway  rates  have  never  been  the  result  of  regard 
either  for  the  welfare  of  the  public  in  general  or  of 
their  own  patrons  in  particular.  Their  invariable 
rule  has  been  and  is  to  exact  "  All  the  traffic  will 
bear." 

The  spirit  which  controls  them  was  clearly  mani- 
fested in  the  case  of  The  Jerome  Cotton  Co.,  of  St. 
Louis  vs.  The  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Texas  Rail- 
way, tried  within  the  last  two  years  before  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 


164  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

The  distance  from  Eufala,  Indian  Territory,  to 
St.  Louis,  is  535  miles. 
In  1889,  with  cotton  at  $50.62  a  bale  at  St.  Louis, 

the  rate  was  $3.00  a  bale. 
In   1889  to   1890,  with  cotton  at  $53.75  a  bale  at 

St.  Louis,  the  rate  was  $3.00  a  bale. 
In  1890-91,    with  cotton  at  $46.87  a  bale  at  St. 

Louis,  the  rate  was  $3.00  a  bale. 
In  1891-92,  with  cotton   at  $39.40  a  bale  at  St. 

Louis,  the  rate  was  $3.30  a  bale. 
In  1892-93,  with  cotton  at   $42.50  a  bale  at  St. 

Louis,  the  rate  was  $3.50  a  bale. 
In   1893-94,   with  cotton  at  $36.89  a  bale  at  St. 

Louis,  the  rate  was  $4.00  a  bale. 
In  1894-95,   with  cotton  at  $30.95  a  bale  at  St. 

Louis,  the  rate  was  $4.00  a  bale. 
The  bale  of  cotton  weighed  500  pounds.  As 
cotton  went  down  in  value,  the  transport  tax  went 
up.  This  increase  in  the  transport  tax,  moreover, 
accompanied  a  large  decrease  in  the  cost  of  the 
service  to  the  railroad.  The  train  which  carried 
but  550  tons  in  1892,  easily  hauled  1000  tons  in 
18*95.  The  Vice-President  and  Manager  of  the 
road  stated  that  the  two  rules  which  guided  them 
in  determining  their  highway  taxes  were  to  exact 
all  the  traffic  would  bear,  and  to  find  a  market  for 
the  stuff.  "  Those  are  the  things  which  guide  us. 
From  that  standpoint,  any  rate  is  reasonable  under 
which  the  traffic  will  move  absolutely.  It  all 
moves  out  every  season.  If  it  moves  out,  it  must 
be  a  reasonable  rate." 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  165 

If  the  highwayman  leaves  his  victim  his  life,  he 
is  a  very  reasonable  highwayman. 

Congressman  Bell  gave  a  striking  instance  of  this 
sweet  reasonableness  in  his  speech  in  Congress  on 
the  Pacific  Railways  last  winter.  Seventeen  sheep 
pelts  were  carried  77  miles  on  a  Colorado  railroad. 
The  pelts  sold  for  $13.86;  of  this  the  railroad  took 
$10,  and  left  to  the  owner  (?)  $3.86. 

In  the  case  of  the  Colorado  Iron  and  Fuel  Co. 
vs.  The  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  tried  not  long 
ago  before  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
it  was  proved  that  the  King  of  the  Royal  Highway 
Pool  of  the  Pacific  Coast  allowed  this  great  iron 
industry — a  concern  employing  5000  men,  having 
a  pay  roll  of  $10,000  a  day  and  a  capital  of  $20,000,- 
ooo — to  continue  its  existence  only  on  condition 
that  it  paid  him,  for  a  haul,  mostly  down  grade, 
1559  miles  from  Pueblo  to  San  Francisco,  on  steel 
rails,  two  and  one  third  times,  and  on  bar-iron, 
three  and  one  fifth  times  as  much  as  was  the  trans- 
port tax  on  similar  products  hauled  2418  miles 
from  Chicago  and  3331  miles  from  New  York,  and 
lifted  up  5000  feet  to  the  tops  of  the  mountains. 

The  absurdity  and  gross  injustice  of  the  highway 
taxation  of  our  Royal  Rulers  was  also  clearly  set 
forth  by  George  J.  Kin  del  in  the  Evening  Post,  of 
Denver,  Col.,  of  January  20,  1897.  English  crock- 
ery is  shipped  to-day  from  Liverpool  to  Denver  for 
$1.12  per  hundred,  while  from  Trenton,  New  Jer- 
sey, the  tax  is  $1.53  per  hundred.  Both  are  carried 
via  the  .  .  .  Railroad  to  Denver.  The  Eng- 


1 66  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

lish  product  is  carried  6000  miles,  the  American 
2000  miles,  yet  the  tax  on  the  American  crockery  is 
nearly  forty  per  cent,  greater  than  that  levied  on  the 
English.  "  For  years,"  says  Mr.  Kindel,  "  I  pur- 
chased metallic  bedsteads  in  England,  not  because 
they  were  better  or  cheaper  with  the  custom's  tariff 
added,  but  because  I  could  save  $75  a  car  in  rail- 
way tariffs,"  and  then  he  goes  on  to  speak  of  dis- 
criminations between  different  sections  of  the 
country  similar  to  this  railway  discrimination  in 
favor  of  the  foreigner  against  the  citizen.  On  a 
shipment  of  sixty  tons  of  goods,  made  up  of  1200 
different  articles  put  up  in  hundred-pound  pack- 
ages, the  transport  tax  from  Colorado  Common 
Points  to  the  Pacific  Coast  is  $3060.  From  the 
Missouri  River,  five  hundred  miles  farther,  and  in 
the  face  of  an  up  grade  of  5000  feet,  the  tax  on  a 
similar  consignment  to  the  Pacific  Coast  is  but 
$1407.60.  Taking  a  car-load  of  first-class  goods  at 
twelve  tons,  the  tax  for  a  similar  service — five  car- 
loads handled  by  shippers  and  by  consignees — 
under  my  proposed  bill  and  by  the  fastest  trains, 
would  be  $18  a  car,  $90  for  the  five  cars,  and  it 
would  be  the  same  whether  the  goods  were  shipped 
from  St.  Louis  or  from  Denver.  The  saving  to 
the  producer  and  the  consumer  in  the  one  case 
would  be  over  $1300,  and  in  the  other  $2970. 

The  Government  of  the  United  Railways  of 
America — The  Joint  Traffic  Association  of  New 
York — completed  its  organization,  November  19, 
1895.  The  New  York  World,  of  Wednesday  eve- 


AND   PASSENGER  POST.  \6? 

ning,  November  20,  1895,  spoke  of  the  birth  of  the 
new  Government  of  the  country  in  the  following 
graphic  language  :  "A  Gigantic  Trust  is  Born," 
"  Competition  Ended,"  "  Freight  Shippers  Help- 
less," "  A  Thousand  Millions  and  all  the  Big  Rail- 
roads in  the  Deal." 

"  For  years  every  commodity  brought  from  the 
great  productive  fields  of  the  West  and  South  to  the 
Eastern  markets  for  consumption  or  export  has 
been  obliged  to  pay  TRIBUTE  to  the  powerful  rail- 
road trust  known  as  The  Trunk  Line  Association. 
By  the  organization  of  the  New  Joint  Traffic  Asso- 
ciation, which  was  effected  yesterday  at  the  meeting 
of  the  presidents  and  managers  of  more  than  fifty 
railroad  companies,  and  at  which  something  like  a 
thousand  million  dollars  of  capital  was  represented, 
the  power  of  this  great  Trust  was  not  only  largely 
increased,  and  the  territory  over  which  it  can  exer- 
cise its  power  extended,  but  it  has  placed  itself  in 
a  position  where  it  can  levy  a  STILL  MORE  BURDEN- 
SOME TAX  UPON  THE  INDUSTRIES  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

By  the  high  rates  which  the  POOLING  ARRANGEMENT 
heretofore  in  vogue  has  made  possible,  the  enor- 
mous quantities  of  wheat,  corn,  cotton,  iron,  and 
other  goods  which  have  been  shipped,  have,  in  turn, 
been  obliged  to  pay  this  TAX  to  the  railroad  mo- 
nopoly, and  it  is  believed  that  when  the  railroad 
managers  have  carried  out  the  scheme  just  now  in- 
augurated, and  have  it  well  under  way,  they  will  be 
able  to  make  still  greater  extortions.  In  framing 
the  agreement  which  has  been  signed  by  the  repre- 


1 68  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

sentatives  of  all  the  big  trunk  lines  of  the  country, 
its  originators  have  been  very  careful  to  avoid  any 
allusion  to  the  extension  of  the  old  pooling  arrange- 
ment, which  it  really  amounts  to,  but  say  that  the 
purpose  of  the  combination  is  to  aid  in  fulfilling 
the  purposes  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act 
and  to  enable  the  various  corporations  in  the 
Trust  to  co-operate  with  each  other,  and,  with 
adjacent  transportation  associations,  to  establish 
and  maintain  reasonable  and  just  rates,  fares, 
rules,  and  regulations  in  state  and  interstate  traf- 
fic, and  to  secure  greater  economy  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  railroad  systems  of  the  country. 
In  other  words,  they  want  to  make  more  money 
out  of  the  business  by  shutting  out  competition 
and  establishing  firmer  rates.  In  financial  circles 
to-day,  the  new  Trust  is  the  most  interesting 
and  absorbing  subject  of  discussion.  It  is  re- 
garded by  railroad  men  as  the  most  important 
and  radical  move  that  has  ever  been  made  by  the 
railroad  magnates  of  this  country.  The  agreement 
is  to  go  into  effect  on  January  i,  1896,  and  will 
continue  for  five  years.  Another  meeting  of  the 
managers  is  to  be  held  on  December  i2th,  when  it 
is  expected  that  it  will  have  received  the  ratifica- 
tion of  every  company  involved."  Then,  after 
reciting  the  names  of  the  signers,  the  author  of  the 
article  continues  :  "  That  all  the  other  railroads 
connected  with  the  trunk  lines  in  their  revenue 
systems  will  come  into  the  agreement  and  ratify  it, 
there  is  said  to  be  very  little  doubt,  and  when  the 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  169 

whole  organization  is  complete  the  Pool  will  have 
absolute  control  of  the  traffic  over  the  largest  and 
richest  portion  of  the  country.  The  area  affected 
by  the  new  association  includes  not  only  the  whole 
of  New  England,  New  York,  and  the  Middle 
States,  but  all  the  territory  lying  between  the  sea- 
board and  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  the  Lower 
Mississippi  Valley  States  and  all  the  South  Atlantic 
and  Gulf  States.  IN  FACT,  IT  CAN  LAY  TRIBUTE 

ON  EVERY  IMPORTANT   TRANSPORTATION   ROUTE  IN 

THE  COUNTRY.  The  rates  on  IMPORTS  AND  EX- 
PORTS of  goods  passing  through  all  the  great  Atlan- 
tic ports  will  be  subject  to  the  controlling  influence 
of  the  monopoly,  and  it  will  also  govern  the  freights 
on  manufactured  goods  from  New  England,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  which  are 
destined  for  the  great  Western  markets.  In  other 
words,  it  is  the  intention  of  the  managers  of  the 
new  pool  to  absolutely  control  both  the  east-bound 
and  the  west-bound  traffic  of  the  country.  The 
provisions  of  the  new  agreement  authorize  a  divi- 
sion of  competitive  traffic,  which  is  nothing  more 
or  less  than  the  old  division  of  the  spoils  under 
the  trunk-line  agreement.  Another  feature  is  the 
abolition  of  independent  agencies  throughout  the 
country,  and  the  establishment  of  joint  agencies. 
The  joint  association  is  to  be  run  by  a  Board  of 
Control,  which  will  be  selected  at  the  next  meeting, 
to  be  held  December  i2th.  There  will  also  be  a 
Board  of  Arbitration,  consisting  of  three  members, 
who  will  decide  all  delicate  questions  that  may 


I/O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

arise  which  cannot  be  settled  by  the  Board  of 
Control." 

Well  -  nigh  two  years  have  passed  since  this 
United  Railway  Government  was  founded,  and 
they  have  been  years  of  just  such  paralyzing  stag- 
nation as  would  inevitably  follow  the  inauguration 
of  such  a  despotism.  If,  for  the  moment,  there  is 
an  apparent  revival  of  prosperity,  it  is  owing  to  a 
combination  of  circumstances — large  crops  in  the 
West  and  a  failure  of  crops  in  the  East  and  in  the 
Old  World — that  cannot  long  continue.  In  any 
case,  the  increased  taxes  levied  upon  industry  by  our 
Railway  Royalties  will  soon  check  the  rising  tide. 

Their  methods  and  their  aims  are  well  set  forth 
in  the  following  paragraph  from  the  New  York 
Times,  of  August  20,  1897:  "  The  Board  of  Con- 
trol of  The  .  .  .  Association  met  yesterday  at 
143  Liberty  Street.  The  rate  situation — the  tax  to 
be  levied  on  business  and  on  travel — was  discussed, 
and  the  general  sentiment  favored  a  stiffening  and 
maintaining  of  rates,  because  of  the  improved  and 
promising  condition  of  affairs.  Two  sessions  were 
held,  and  there  was  entire  harmony  and  a  disposi- 
tion to  further  the  interests  of  the  Association.  On 
the  recommendation  of  the  Northwestern  lines,  en- 
dorsed by  the  Lake  and  Trunk  lines,  the  Board 
approved  the  increase,  September  ist,  of  the  rate 
on  flour  from  Minneapolis,  rail,  lake  and  rail,  from 
17-^  cents  a  hundred  to  22  cents."  In  other  words, 
the  transport  tax  on  flour  sent  from  the  overflowing 
West  to  the  hungry  East,  was  increased  about 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  I /I 

twenty-five  per  cent.  The  increase  of  the  tax  on 
grain  was  put  off  till  the  next  meeting  of  the  Board. 
This  Royal  Highway  Board — or  shall  we  call  it 
Board  of  Royal  Highwaymen — which  controls  the 
circulation  of  the  life-blood  of  the  American  people, 
accordingly  met  on  the  i6th  of  September,  and  de- 
creed an  increase  of  the  tax  on  grain  to  22-^  cents  a 
hundred — the  existing  rate  was  20  cents — to  go 
into  effect  October  i5th,  and  to  continue  at  the 
will  of  the  Board.  The  nearer  the  East  is  to  star- 
vation, the  higher  is  to  be  the  transport  tax  on  food 
products.  The  nearer  the  approach  of  winter  and 
the  colder  the  weather,  the  higher  is  to  be  the 
transport  tax  on  fuel.  Whether  we  are  to  starve 
or  to  freeze  is  to  depend  on  the  will  of  the  manag- 
ers, or  THE  MANAGER  of  our  Royal-Railed  High- 
ways. 

We  have  a  striking  exhibition  of  the  Imperial 
Power  of  this  Highway  Government  in  the  case  of 
the  Merchant's  Excursions  to  and  from  New  York 
City,  in  August  and  September,  1897.  During 
certain  portions  of  these  months,  certain  non- 
resident merchants  living  outside  New  England 
and  outside  a  hundred-mile  zone  of  New  York, 
having  been  properly  labelled,  were  granted  the 
privilege  of  a  round  trip  to  the  Metropolis  for  two 
thirds  the  usual  tax.  All  other  persons,  though 
travelling  on  the  same  trains,  paid  the  regular  tax. 

The  managers  of  these  steel  highways  and  those 
whom  they  have  ennobled  are  already  the  lords  of 
the  fireside.  They  determine  whether  the  homes 


1/2  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

of  the  multitude  are  to  be  lighted  at  night  and  on 
what  conditions.  In  his  pamphlet  on  Trusts,  dated 
February,  1897,  George  Rice,  of  Marietta,  Ohio, 
draws  a  picture  of  the  petroleum  industry  of  the 
United  States  which  ought  to  arouse  every  citizen 
to  the  dangers  of  the  hour.  After  stating  that  the 
paramount  position  of  a  certain  company  is  entirely 
due  to  railway  discriminations,  Me.  Rice  says  that 
his  experience  as  an  oil  producer  and  refiner,  and  his 
late  investigations  as  to  the  prices  of  refined  oils  in 
all  parts  of  the  country,  conclusively  establishes  the 
fact  that,  where  competition  does  not  exist,  the 
prices  of  refined  oils  are  very  high  as  compared 
with  the  low  prices  of  crude  petroleum,  and  where 
there  is  competition,  the  prices  of  the  refined  pro- 
duct are  reduced  only  so  long  as  the  competition 
continues,  and  only  to  the  competitor's  customers. 
"  The  average  price  for  the  best  grade  of  oil — that 
from  the  Appalachian  district  or  white-sand  pools 
— at  the  wells,  for  the  last  five  years,  has  been  but 
2.18  cents  per  gallon,  while  that  of  the  inferior 
grades — the  sulphur  or  Lima  oils  from  Northwestern 
Ohio — has  been  but  1.28  cents.  It  costs  but  half 
a  cent  per  gallon  to  refine  these  oils,  and  not  to 
exceed  half  a  cent  per  gallon  more  to  pipe  them  to 
the  refineries,  making  a  total  average  cost  of  the 
refined  product,  at  the  point  of  shipment,  of  2.83 
cents.  The  best  oil  goes  to  the  East  and  Middle 
West;  the  South,  Southwest,  and  Northwest  are 
compelled  to  take  a  poorer  product  at  the  same 
price,  because  in  these  sections  the  greater  railway 


AND  PASSENGER   POST.  1 73 

discrirnations  have  virtually  wiped  out  all  competi- 
tion. Two  thirds  of  the  oil  product  of  the  United 
States  is  exported,  and  the  foreigner  gets  this  two 
thirds  for  the  same  amount  of  money  that  the 
American  pays  for  the  remaining  one  third;  in 
other  words,  the  price  to  the  foreigner  is  but  one 
half  that  to  the  citizen. 

"  This  trust  determines  at  once  what  the  con- 
sumer pays  for  the  finished  product  and  what  the 
producer  receives  for  the  raw  material.  Its  agent 
determines  the  price  of  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the 
petroleum  produced  in  the  United  States.  In  an 
industry,  representing  in  the  value  of  its  product 
in  1896,  the  year's  labor  of  300,000  farmers,  this 
trust  regulates  the  value  of  each  man's  labor  at  its 
will.  On  the  roth  of  November  the  agent  was 
kindly  paying  the  oil  producer  for  his  wage  in  pro- 
ducing a  barrel  of  petroleum,  $1.20;  forty-eight 
days  later,  on  the  28th  day  of  December,  the  oil 
producer  was  receiving  a  wage  of  but  ninety  cents 
a  barrel,  a  cut  of  twenty-five  per  cent. 

"  The  trust  dictates  to  the  rail  lines  the  rates  of 
freight  to  be  paid  by  its  competitors  while  its  own 
rates  are  nominal.  Its  power  over  the  rail  lines  is 
such  that  they  dare  not  reduce  the  mileage  rate 
allowed  on  its  thousands  of  tank-cars.  The  Joint 
Traffic  Association  has  conformed  to  its  wishes  and 
excepted  petroleum  from  the  rate-making  control 
of  the  Board  of  Managers,  to  be  subject  to  special 
contract.  Throughout  the  territory  of  the  South- 
western Traffic  Association,  the  rates  between  ter- 


1/4  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

minals  are  from  44  to  225  per  cent,  less  than  to 
intermediate  stations.  Exclusive  stop-over  privi- 
leges are,  however,  granted  to  this  trust  to  stop  and 
divide  up  full-loaded  tank-cars  at  one  or  more 
stations  en  route,  while  its  competitors  are  denied 
this  privilege.  When  a  competitor,  having  his  own 
cars,  asks  for  the  privilege,  he  is  politely  informed 
that  it  has  been  cancelled — this  although  in  the 
office  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  it 
stands  uncancelled. 

"  From  St.  Louis  to  Hillendah,  1073  miles,  the 
oil  rate  is  55  cents  a  hundred,  for  a  car  of  24,000 
pounds,  $132 ;  to  Houston,  eleven  miles  farther  on, 
the  rate  is  but  33}  cents,  or  $80  a  car.  The  rate 
for  the  shorter  distance  is  $52  greater,  or  nearly 
seventy  per  cent,  greater  than  for  the  longer. 
From  Cairo,  Illinois,  to  New  Orleans,  the  rate  is 
$43.20  per  car;  to  La  Branch,  nineteen  miles  from 
New  Orleans,  $98.40." — Trusts,  George  Rice. 

The  truth  of  Mr.  Rice's  statements  as  to  the 
poor  product  and  high  prices  of  this  trust  is  corrob- 
orated by  the  revolt  of  the  merchants  of  Western 
Massachusetts  against  the  monopoly,  inaugurated 
early  in  January,  1898.  Writing  under  date  of 
January,  3,  1898,  the  Springfield  correspondent  of 
the  New  York  World  said  that  after  numerous 
complaints  by  their  customers — complaints  that 
had  extended  over  many  months — upwards  of  a 
hundred  dealers  had  determined  to  free  themselves 
from  the  monopoly  and  to  buy  oil  of  independent 
refineries,  of  whom  they  knew  by  experience  better 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  I?$ 

oil  could  be  obtained  at  lower  prices.  "  The 
agents  of  the  trust,"  says  the  writer,  "  have  already 
appeared  in  the  field,  and  are  doing  their  best  to 
frighten  the  men  who  are  interested  in  the  scheme. 
One  prominent  local  dealer  says  that  a  trust  agent 
approached  him  and  said:  '  See  here,  if  you  try  to 
fight  the  trust  we  will  put  the  price  down  so  low 
that  you  cannot  sell  any  oil.  We  will  ruin  you, 
and  then  when  any  of  you  want  to  buy  any  more 
oil  from  us,  you  '11  have  to  pay  for  it.'  The  ad- 
vantage of  the  trust  in  this  contest  may  be  imagined 
when  we  learn  from  Mr.  Rice  that  one  of  the  rail- 
roads which  serves  a  large  portion  of  this  district 
has  lately  been  discovered  in  making  a  discrimina- 
tion in  favor  of  this  trust  of  no  per  cent."  This 
particular  mode  of  discrimination  was  done  by  un- 
derbilling,  by  which  two  cars  of  naphtha,  contain- 
ing 100,986  pounds,  were  carried  at  less  than  half 
weight,  or  at  24,000  pounds  per  car,  or  48,000 
pounds  total,  or  no  per  cent,  discrimination. — 
Trusts ',  Supplement  No.  i,  January,  1898. 

I  had  thought  to  close  here  my  indictment  of  this 
Royal  Highway  Government,  but  the  following 
editorial,  published  in  the  Republican  Chicago 
Tribune,  October  12,  1897,  so  complements  my 
quotation  from  the  Democratic  New  York  World, 
of  November  20,  1895,  that  the  use  of  the  one 
demands  that  of  the  other. 

The  Tribune's  editorial  discussed  the  aim  of  a 
certain  capitalist,  saying  : 

"  As    the    Tribune    stated    yesterday    morning, 


176  A    GENERAL  EX  EIGHT 

nearly  all  the  great  trunk  lines  in  this  country  are 
now  practically  controlled  by  a  certain  capitalist. 
He  owns,  or  has  under  his  thumb,  lines  which 
have  a  mileage  of  44,000  miles.  He  will  add  to 
them  soon  the  .  .  .  Railroad,  the  . 
Railroad,  and  some  others,  which  will  make  him 
the  MASTER  of  lines  with  a  total  mileage  of  50,550 
miles.  These  roads  have  less  than  half  the  total 
mileage  of  the  country,  but  they  represent  fully 
half  the  total  issues  of  stock  and  of  bonds. 

"It  is  not  difficult  to  see  the  future  dangers 
which  will  grow  out  of  the  combinations  which  this 
capitalist  is  making,  combinations  which  will  put 
him  into  a  position  where  he  and  the  men  who  are 
acting  with  him  can  dictate  the  prices  of  all  pro- 
ducts and  other  property  in  the  United  States. 
He  and  they  will  become  the  possessors  of  un- 
bounded power.  That  a  proper  use  will  be  made 
of  it  cannot  be  believed.  When  the  great  trunk 
lines  are  brought  under  one  management  and  one- 
man  power  reigns  supreme,  the  other  roads  will  cut 
no  figure  in  the  case.  It  will  not  be  necessary  to 
get  control  of  them.  Lines  not  terminating  at  vital 
points  of  trade  on  the  seaboard,  like  New  York  and 
San  Francisco,  will  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  com- 
bined trunk  lines.  The  latter  will  be  able  to 
dictate  to  them  whatever  terms  they  please. 

"  The  Pennsylvania  system  is  not  in  this  finan- 
cier's clutches,  but  the  roads  he  has  flank  it  on  all 
sides.  It  will  be  helpless  without  them.  Then, 
after  having  secured  the  mastery  of  the  Railroad 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  177 

systems  of  the  United  States,  nothing  will  be  easier 
for  him  than  to  secure  that  of  the  Canadian  roads, 
and  thus  cut  off  all  competition  in  that  quarter. 
The  English  capitalists  who  own  them  will  be  per- 
fectly willing  to  join  with  him.  The  next  step  will 
be  to  buy  up  the  big  lake  vessels,  and  thus  put  an 
end  to  lake  competition.  In  getting  hold  of  the 
.  .  .  of  .  .  .he  also  got  hold  of  the  steam- 
ship lines  which  ply  between  Savannah  and  New 
York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia.  He  will  get  hold, 
when  the  time  comes,  of  the  vessels  which  ply  be- 
tween Duluth,  Chicago,  and  Buffalo.  When  he 
has  perfected  his  plans,  he  will  be  in  a  position  to 
fix  railroad  rates  to  suit  himself.  There  will  be  no 
competition  whatever.  WHATEVER  HE  CHARGES, 

ALL  WILL  HAVE  TO  PAY. 

"  Then  he  can  raise  the  rates  on  food  products 
so  that  Eastern  consumers  will  have  to  pay  more 
for  their  food  and  Western  producers  will  get  less 
for  it.  Manufacturers  will  get  less  for  their  goods 
and  purchasers  will  have  to  pay  more  for  them. 
Their  losses  will  go  to  the  railroads  to  pay  divi- 
dends on  watered  stock — say  rather  to  redeem  in 
human  sweat  and  human  blood  railroad  issues  of 
paper  money.  When  the  rates  on  corn,  cotton, 
wheat,  and  other  products  of  the  soil  are  advanced 
in  order  to  enable  dividends  to  be  paid  on  billions 
of  watered  stock,  the  value  of  the  farms  on  which 
these  products  are  raised  will  be  forced  down. 
The  owners  of  millions  of  fertile  acres  will  not  be 
able  to  get  for  those  acres  what  they  now  can. 


178  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

;<  The  value  of  all  city  property  will  also  be  at 
his  mercy.  For  it  will  be  in  his  power  to  build  up 
one  city  and  to  pull  down  another.  If  he  chooses, 
he  can  blight  the  trade  of  a  city.  He  can  kill  its 
manufactures.  He  can  thus  reduce  its  population 
and  depreciate  the  value  of  its  realty. 

"  What  will  the  people  do  when  he  puts  on  the 
screws  ?  Probably  nothing  at  first.  For  he  will 
move  slowly.  The  first  advances  in  rates  will  be 
hardly  noticeable — say  only  twenty-five  per  cent. 
Then  there  will  be  further  advances,  and  the 
people  will  begin  to  complain.  At  first  they  will 
appeal  to  Congress.  But  what  good  will  that  do  ? 
A  combination  which  represents  something  like  five 
billions  of  stocks  and  bonds  (and  which  with  but 
the  aid  of  a  printing-machine  can  make  five  billions 
more)  will  have  unbounded  resources  for  purposes 

Of  CORRUPTION.  IT  WILL  BUY  UP  ALL  THE  CON- 
GRESSMEN IT  NEEDS.  It  will  seek  to  get  control  of 
the  press  which  denounces  it,  and,  in  most  cases, 
it  will  succeed. 

"All  the  agencies  on  which  the  people  rely  for  aid 
and  advice  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  But 
this  capitalist  and  his  allies  will  not  have  money 
enough  to  buy  the  people  themselves.  When  they 
see  that  they  have  been  betrayed,  and  that  a  rail- 
road octopus  has  them  in  its  tentacles  THERE  WILL 

BE  WILD  WORK.  TREACHEROUS  REPRESENTATIVES 
WILL  BE  DEALT  WITH  AS  THEY  DESERVE;  BUT  THE 
FORMS  OF  LAW  WILL  NOT  BE  OBSERVED.  There 

will  be  a  short,  sharp  contest  between  the  few  who 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  179 

are  fleecing  the  people  and  the  many  who  are  being 
fleeced.  In  that  strife  the  former  will  fare  ill. 
and  his  associates  should  bear  that  in 
mind,  and  should  be  careful  how  they  provoke  a 
conflict  which  can  end  only  in  their  total  over- 
throw. They  should  not  give  their  unbounded 
and  insufferable  lust  of  power  and  greed  of  gain 
too  free  a  rein  or  they  will  be  confronted  by  an 
infuriated  people. 

"As  for  the  people,  however,  the  wisest  thing  they 
can  do  is  to  use  an  ounce  of  prevention  while  it  is 
yet  time,  and  check  up  this  capitalist  and  his  like 
before  they  can  go  any  farther  on  the  road  they  are 
pursuing." 

One  other  witness  remains  to  be  heard  on  this 
great  question — the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion— and  its  report  of  1897  reveals  a  state  of  de- 
moralization in  the  public  transportation  business 
of  the  country  which  can  hardly  have  been  sur- 
passed at  any  stage  of  our  history.  As  to  import  and 
export  rates,  since  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court 
in  the  Texas  and  Pacific  case,  March,  1896  (162, 
U.S.),  the  rate  of  railway  charges  on  imported  traffic 
has  been  made  and  changed  at  the  will  of  the  car- 
rier, without  regard  to  inland  rates,  discriminations 
or  preferences,  and  in  disregard  of  any  legal  require- 
ment to  charge  the  same  rate  on  import  traffic  to 
all  persons,  and  a  similar  condition  exists  in  export 
traffic. 

Taking  sugar  as  an  illustration,  on  a  train-load 
of  eleven  cars,  one  of  New  Orleans  sugar,  and  a 


180  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

car  each  of  sugar  from  China,  Austria,  Germany, 
England,  and  a  half-dozen  other  countries  of  vary- 
ing distances,  under  the  act,  as  now  declared,  the 
rail  rate  would  be  the  same  on  no  two  cars  of  the 
train.  Testimony  before  the  Commission  shows 
that,  while  it  is  not  a  profitable  rate  in  the  opinion 
of  the  Commission, — it  is  clearly  a  profitable  rate  in 
the  opinion  of  the  managers  of  the  railways — one 
hundred  pounds  of  sugar  can  be  moved  between 
New  Orleans  and  San  Francisco  for  about  fifty 
cents.  The  [published]  rate  from  San  Francisco 
to  New  Orleans  is  sixty-five  cents,  and  it  is  some- 
times carried  for  less.  Probably  with  no  intention 
of  carrying  any,  the  rate  from  New  Orleans  to  San 
Francisco  is  $1.65.  Note,  please,  that  the  trans- 
port rate  on  sugar  carried  across  the  continent  is 
but  half  a  cent  per  pound,  while  the  railroad  tax  for 
the  haul  of  U.  S.  mail-bags,  for  average  trips  of 
less  than  450  miles  is  eight  cents  a  pound. 

But  the  point  of  special  interest  to  us  in  this  sugar 
business  is  the  fact  that  although  the  rates  on  these 
eleven  cars,  from  New  Orleans  to  San  Francisco, 
may  each  differ  from  the  other,  the  through  rates — 
land  and  water  added  together — from  the  place  of 
the  origin  of  the  sugar  to  its  destination  are  practi- 
cally the  same,  and  this  although  the  distances 
may  vary  from  500  miles,  New  Orleans  to  Cuba,  to 
twenty  times  that  distance,  New  Orleans  to  the 
ports  of  China.  This  custom  of  uniform  through 
rates  adopted  by  our  international  land  and  water 
carriers  not  only  affords  a  most  powerful  argument 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  l8l 

in  favor  of  my  scheme  of  uniform  rates  within 
national  boundaries,  it  surely  foreshadows  the 
formation  of  an  international  transportation  union 
with  uniform  rates  between  any  two  stations  in  the 
civilized  world. — /.  C.  Report,  page  8. 

As  to  export  rates,  "  The  decision  in  the  Import 
Rate  Case  has  been  generally  accepted  by  the 
roads  as  exempting  from  the  operation  of  the  law 
all  of  the  traffic  which  is  shipped  for  export.  As 
a  consequence,  during  a  greater  part  of  the  year,  a 
preference  of  five  cents  a  hundred  has  been  en- 
joyed in  the  transportation  of  corn  for  export  over 
that  designed  for  consumption  by  our  own  people. 
Provisions  have  been  and  are  transported  by  rail 
from  the  Missouri  River  to  New  York  and  thence 
by  steamer  to  Liverpool  at  45^  cents  per  hundred 
pounds,  of  which  rate  the  railroads  received  38^ 
cents  and  the  steamship  6f  cents  per  hundred 
pounds,  while  traffic  identical  in  weight,  quality, 
and  value,  and  carried  on  the  same  trains  from  the 
point  of  origin  to  New  York,  but  which  was  for 
domestic  consumption,  was  required  to  pay  53^ 
cents  per  hundred.  Thus  the  export  traffic  was 
carried  through  to  Liverpool,  including  the  ocean 
haul,  for  8£  cents  per  hundred  less  than  was  ex- 
acted for  the  carriage  to  New  York  of  like  traffic 
for  domestic  use.  The  precise  amount  of  dis- 
crimination made  by  the  railroads  against  our  own 
people  in  this  case  was  fifteen  cents  per  hundred 
pounds,  which  on  a  single  shipment  amounted  to 
several  thousand  dollars."  On  a  train-load  of 


1 82  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

1800  tons,  such  as  are  said  to  be  hauled  at  times 
over  the  New  York  Central,  such  a  discrimination 
would  amount  to  $5400. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  lawlessness  of  our  traffic 
managers  in  determining  transport  taxes,  the  Com- 
mission publishes  the  following  letter  from  a  promi- 
nent Chicago  shipper,  dated  June  5,  1897: 

"  Hon.     Wm.   M.    Morrison,   President  Interstate 

Commerce  Commission. 
"  DEAR  SIR:— 

"  Referring  to  the  Interstate  Commerce  law,  a 
representative  of  one  of  the  leading  freight  lines 
from  the  East  to  Chicago  called  this  morning  to 
solicit  our  business,  and,  as  an  inducement  offered 
us  25  per  cent,  off  the  regular  rates.  We  asked 
him  if  this  was  not  violating  the  United  States 
Commerce  law.  He  said  it  certainly  was.  This 
is  a  sample  of  what  has  been  done  for  a  long 
period,  and  what  is  being  done  to-day.  What  is  a 
firm  to  do  who  will  not  violate  the  law  ?  Adhering 
to  it  costs  us  thousands  of  dollars  per  annum.  We 
are  confident  that  there  are  many,  many  reputable 
houses  in  Chicago  who  are  suffering  on  account  of 
their  strong  desire  to  be  law-abiding  citizens. 
Violators  of  the  law  are  in  a  position  to  get  control 
of  more  than  their  share  of  business. 
;<  Yours  truly." 
—I.  C.  Report,  1897,  page  58. 

And  these  railroad  managers  show  an  equal  dis- 
regard of  the  law  in  their  passenger  traffic.  Ninety- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  183 

five  per  cent,  of  the  "  scalped  "  passenger  tickets 
sold  at  a  discount  from  the  published  rates,  are 
said  to  be  bought  direct  from  the  agents  of  railroad 
companies. — Testimony,  George  McKenzie  before 
Senate  I.  C.  Committee;  see  N.  Y.  Sun,  January 
15,  1898. 

The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Freight 
Bureau  Cases,  167  U.  S.,  479,  rendered  May  24, 
1897,  denied  to  the  Commission  the  authority  to 
require  carriers  not  to  exceed  charges  found  reason- 
able and  just.  As  a  result  "  Carriers  by  all-rail 
lines  from  the  West  to  the  Eastern  seaboard,  doubt- 
less thoroughly  informed  of  the  immunity  from  re- 
strictive regulation  conferred  upon  them  by  this 
decision,  increased  the  long  existing  rate  of  20 
cents  a  hundred  on  grain,  and  grain  products  from 
Chicago  to  New  York  to  22-J  cents  on  October  15, 
1897.  The  rate  had  been  20  cents  per  hundred 
since  February  4,  1895,  except  for  about  three 
weeks  between  June  15  and  July  8,  1895,  when  it 
was  as  low  as  15  cents.  Similar  changes  also  took 
effect  on  grain  to  other  eastern  ports,  and  rates  from 
the  many  stations  taking  percentages  of  the  Chi- 
cago rate  were  similarly  affected.  A  like  increase 
of  2-J-  cents  was  made  on  October  31  last  in  the  all- 
rail  grain  rate  from  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis.  A 
statement  prepared  in  the  office  of  the  Joint  Traffic 
Association  and  filed  in  a  pending  case,  shows  that 
during  the  year  1896  the  all-rail  lines  brought  from 
and  through  Chicago  and  various  other  junctions  to 
Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore 


1 84  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

1,482,370  tons,  or  2,964,740,000  pounds  of  grain, 
flour,  and  mill  stuffs.  An  advance  of  2\  cents  per 
hundred  pounds  in  transportation  charges  applied 
on  such  tonnage  amounts  to  an  addition  to  the 
railway  revenues  of  $741,185,  and  to  an  added 
burden  of  the  same  amount  upon  the  farm  and 
mill  products  carried  only  by  those  lines  via  or 
from  Chicago  and  such  other  junctions  to  the  sea- 
ports mentioned." — /.  C.  Report,  page  90. 

The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Troy 
Case,  168  U.  S.,  rendered  November  8,  1897,  de- 
clared that  railroad  competition  may  create  dis- 
criminating circumstances  and  conditions  under 
the  fourth  section,  and  thereby  justified  greater 
charges  for  the  shorter  haul.  ' '  Within  five  days 
from  the  reading  of  its  opinion  by  the  Supreme 
Court,  the  Trans-Missouri  Bureau — which  appears 
to  be  doing  business  as  the  lineal  descendant  of  the 
Trans-Missouri  Freight  Association — declared  an 
illegal  association  by  the  Supreme  Court — filed 
schedules  raising  the  rates  to  intermediate  points 
over  100,000  square  miles  of  territory."  A  similar 
resuk  has  been  effected  in  other  cases  by  enor- 
mously reducing  the  rates  between  terminals  and 
leaving  the  rates  for  the  shorter  hauls  to  interme- 
diate stations  from  two  to  three  times  as  much  as 
for  the  longer  hauls  between  the  terminals. — ( /.  C. 
Report,  1897,  pages  43,  91.) 

But  of  the  various  railway  methods  for  picking 
the  pockets  of  the  public — railway  shareholders  as 
well  as  those  who  use  the  railways — perhaps  the 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  1 8$ 

most  sinister  is  that  practised  by  the  so-called 
"belt  lines"  in  the  large  cities  of  the  West. 
These  belt  lines  were  originally  designed  and  used 
for  the  transfer  of  cars  between  Eastern  and  West- 
ern roads  that  had  no  connection  with  each  other's 
rails,  and  the  tax  exacted  for  the  service,  one  dol- 
lar and  upwards  according  to  the  work  performed, 
was  perhaps  within  reason.  The  formation  of 
Union  depots,  the  consolidation  of  railway  systems 
and  the  junction  of  the  various  lines  terminating  in 
these  cities  have,  however,  made  this  switching 
service  practically  unnecessary,  and  according  to 
this  report,  the  principal  function  of  the  belt  lines 
of  Chicago  at  present  seems  to  be  to  enable  their 
managers  to  hold  up  all  produce  that  comes  from 
the  West  for  Chicago  consumption  until  it  has  paid 
them  a  uniform  tax  of  four  dollars  a  car,  and  to 
allow  no  produce  to  pass  through  Chicago  to  the 
East  until  it  has  paid  either  to  one  belt  line  or 
another  a  tax  amounting  on  an  average  to  ten 
dollars  a  car.  As  to  whether  these  taxes  are  levied 
on  Eastern  produce  bound  for  Chicago  and  the 
West  does  not  appear,  but  it  is  altogether  prob- 
able. 

In  some  cases  the  traffic  comes  to  Chicago 
from  the  West  by  a  line  whose  rails  intersect  those 
of  an  Eastern  line  by  which  the  traffic  is  to  go 
forward  to  the  seaboard.  In  such  cases  it  is 
entirely  practicable  for  the  Western  line  itself  to 
deliver  the  traffic  to  the  Eastern  carrier,  and  that 
is  the  most  natural  and  least  expensive  way  to 


1 86  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

effect  such  a  delivery.  But  instead  of  this  the 
traffic  is  turned  over  to  a  belt  line  on  the  outskirts 
of  Chicago,  and  a  tax  of  four  dollars  a  car  is  levied 

ON  THE  EARNINGS    OF    THE    WESTERN    LINE    for    the 

delivery  of  the  car  to  any  junction  point  on  the  belt 
road.  This  tax,  be  it  noted,  is  four  times  the  old 
switching  tax  of  one  dollar,  and  where  a  necessary 
service  is  performed,  the  Commission  says  that 
it  fully  pays  for  that  service.  An  arrangement  is 
made,  however,  with  some  of  the  lines  running  east 
of  Chicago  under  which  the  Belt  Line  receives 
eight  per  cent,  of  the  division  of  the  through  rate 
for  the  haul  from  Chicago  to  the  seaboard  on  all 
the  traffic  which  the  Belt  Line  delivers  to  the  East- 
ern carrier.  On  grain  this  amounts  to  about  six 
dollars  on  an  average  car-load.  The  total  is  ten 
dollars  a  car. — /.  C.  Report,  1897,  pages  52, 

53- 

In  railroad  circles  this  is  called  a  "  double 
cross."  The  term  is  appropriate.  The  Belt  Line 
seems  to  be  a  very  convenient  machine  for  crucify- 
ing at  once  the  ordinary  railway  shareholder  and 
the  public.  The  number  of  car-loads  of  grain  re- 
ceived at  Chicago  during  the  calendar  year  1897  was 
329,618.  If  all  of  these  cars  were  destined  for  the 
East  and  were  subjected  to  this  ten-dollar  tax,  the 
total  of  the  needless  burden  thus  assessed  upon 
the  public  by  the  Chicago  Belt  Lines  amounted  to 
$3,296,180.  Even  if  the  cars  went  no  farther  than 
Chicago  and  were  mulcted  to  the  tune  of  but  four 
dollars  a  car,  the  total  tax  on  the  earnings  of  the 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  187 

Western  roads  amounted  to  the  handsome  sum  of 
$1,318,472. 

The  next  step  in  the  process  of  transferring  the 
essential  functions  of  the  National  Government  to 
the  Joint  Traffic  Association  and  to  its  imperial 
Master  is  to  be  the  legalization  of  railway  pools  by 
Congress.  The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in 
the  Troy  Case  gave  to  our  private  railway  managers 
practically  absolute  control  of  communities  between 
terminals.  The  ratification  of  the  pooling  decree 
now  before  the  United  States  Senate  would  give 
them  equal  power  over  the  terminals. 

And  this  proposed  pooling  of  the  freight  traffic 
of  the  country  would  be  as  detrimental  to  the 
ordinary  railway  shareholder  as  to  the  general 
public.  Its  effects  can  be  easily  determined  by  a 
study  of  the  passenger  traffic  of  the  country  where 
pooled  rates  have  prevailed  almost  from  the  birth 
of  the  railway.  The  first  report  of  the  New  Haven 
Road  congratulated  its  stockholders  on  the  con- 
summation of  pooling  arrangements  with  the  com- 
peting steamboat  lines  on  Long  Island  Sound,  and 
on  the  prospect  that  after  a  little  no  man  in 
Southern  Connecticut  would  be  able  to  live  in  one 
town  and  to  earn  his  living  in  another  except  at 
their  will.  And  they  carried  out  their  scheme  of 
raising  passenger  rates  and  of  maintaining  those 
rates,  with  the  result  that  in  many  cases  it  actually 
cost  more  to  take  a  trip  on  this  road  in  1897  than 
it  did  in  1850.  The  New  Haven  Road  has  pros- 
pered, it  is  true,  in  spite  of  its  restrictions  upon 


1 88  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  life  of  the  State  it  was  chartered  to  serve,  and 
doubtless  because  the  burdens  which  it  placed  upon 
the  traveller,  heavy  as  they  were,  were  lighter  than 
those  levied  elsewhere. 

As  a  rule,  however,  these  pooled  taxes  upon 
travel,  taxes  nearly  always  equal  to  the  value  of  an 
average  day's  labor,  for  an  hour's  journey  to  and 
from  a  man's  home,  and  in  some  cases  much 
higher,  as  a  rule  these  pooled  passenger  rates  have 
had  a  most  disastrous  result  on  passenger  revenues. 
"  Certainly  of  the  lines  west  of  Chicago  and  prob- 
ably (with  one  exception)  of  the  lines  west  of 
Buffalo  and  Pittsburgh,  there  is  not  a  single  road 
but  what  conducts  its  passenger  traffic  at  a  loss."- 
"  Railroading  under  Present  Conditions,"  £.  jR. 
Review ,  December  18,  1897. 

And  what  is  true  of  the  Western  roads  is  equally 
true  of  probably  the  majority  of  the  roads  of  the 
East.  Taking  a  particular  instance,  the  New  Eng- 
land Road,  we  find  that  its  passenger  revenues  were 
so  low  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1897  that  even 
between  two  such  cities  as  Hartford  and  New- 
Britain,  having  populations  of  75,000  and  25,000 
respectively,  it  seemed  doubtful  if  it  would  pay  to 
maintain  the  tracks.  But  a  little  later  a  great 
change  took  place.  The  competition  of  a  trolley 
line  forced  the  monopoly  to  increase  its  service 
and  to  reduce  its  pooled  rates  by  fifty  per  cent., 
and  forthwith  the  traffic  almost  quadrupled,  the 
revenues  doubled,  and  the  passenger  traffic  became 
immediately  remunerative.  If  the  railroad  system 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  189 

of  the  United  States  has  not  been  absolutely  ruined 
in  recent  years  it  has  been  because  freight  rates 
have  been  so  reduced  by  the  competition  of  rail- 
road with  railroad  and  of  railroad  routes  with  water 
or  with  combined  water  and  rail  routes  as  to  have 
permitted  an  expansion  of  business  and  a  corre- 
sponding expansion  of  revenues. 

There  are  probably  no  freight  trains  in  this 
country  more  profitable  than  the  i8oo-ton  through 
grain  trains  of  the  New  York  Central,  on  which 
the  competition  of  the  Erie  Canal  has  forced  down 
the  rates,  Buffalo  to  New  York,  to  less  than  eighty 
cents  a  ton.  But  although  the  competitive  through- 
freight  traffic,  with  its  comparatively  low  rates, 
may  be  prosperous,  it  is  very  doubtful  if  as  much 
can  be  said  of  the  pooled  way  traffic.  There  was  a 
reduction  in  the  gross  earnings  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Road  in  the  year  1896-97,  as  compared  with 
the  previous  year,  of  about  $707,000,  and,  says  the 
report  of  1897,  sixty  per  cent,  of  this  loss  was  due 
to  the  falling  off  of  local  traffic  on  which  the 
pooled  tax  levied  on  the  movements  of  produce 
averaged  about  three  times  the  competitive  tax  on 
through  produce. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  effect  of  compe- 
tition in  the  past,  the  time  has  now  come  when  the 
business  of  our  Royal-Railed  Highways  must  be 
pooled.  Only  so  can  these  highways  be  managed 
as  a  uniform  network  in  the  interests  of  the  general 
traffic.  And  this  railway  pool  must  be  managed 
by  the  National  Government.  The  man  or  the  as- 


A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 


sociation  that  manages  this  pool  will  be  the  Gov- 
ernment. I  propose  the  pooling  of  the  railways 
under  the  United  States  Post-office. 

Carroll  D.  Wright  suggested  this  as  a  solution  of 
our  railroad  problem  in  his  notable  address  on 
"  The  Chicago  Strike,"  of  June,  1894. 

The  Chicago  strike  is  epochal  in  its  influence,  he 
said,  because  it  emphasizes  the  claim  that  there 
must  be  some  legislation  which  shall  place  railroad 
employees  on  a  par  with  railroad  employers  in  con- 
ducting the  business  of  transportation,  so  far  as  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  employment  are  concerned  ; 
because  the  events  of  that  strike  logically  demand 
that  another  declaration  of  law  and  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  federal  government  shall  be  made;  a 
declaration  that  all  wages  paid  as  well  as  charges 
for  any  service  rendered  in  the  transportation  of 
property,  passengers,  etc.,  shall  be  reasonable  and 
just.  "  It  has  emphasized  the  power  of  the  federal 
government  to  protect  its  great  interests  in  the 
transportation  of  the  mails." 

Personally,  he  added,  he  was  opposed  to  the 
government  management  of  the  railroads,  but  if  it 
came,  it  would  come  because  of  a  great  necessity, 
and  good  citizens  should  have  no  fear.  When  it 
came,  moreover,  it  would  be,  not  at  the  demand  of 
the  labor  involved  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  trans- 
portation, but  "  at  the  demand  and  in  the  interest 
of  the  railroads  and  of  the  shippers,"  and  the  move- 
ment would  be  most  seductive. 

The    demand    would   be   that   the   government 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  19 1 

should  take  charge  of  the  roads — not  purchase 
them — should  take  charge  of  the  roads  and  out  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  transportation  business  guar- 
antee to  the  existing  stockholders  a  small  but 
reasonable  dividend.  And  this  seductive  move- 
ment would  command  the  support  of  the  conserva- 
tive men  of  the  country,  of  the  stockholders 
themselves. 

At  my  request,  a  declaration  of  law,  formulated 
in  accordance  with  these  suggestions  of  Mr.  Wright, 
was  offered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  at 
Washington,  at  the  opening  of  Congress,  December 
8,  1897,  by  Congressman  N.  D.  Sperry,  of  Connec- 
ticut, and  was  referred  to  the  Post-office  Commit- 
tee. Its  title  is  "An  Act  for  the  Establishment 
of  a  National  System  of  Post-Roads  and  for  the 
Extension  of  the  Post-office  Department  to  Cover 
the  Entire  Business  of  Public  Transportation." 
This  Bill  will,  I  trust,  prove  so  seductive  that  it  will 
command  the  support  not  only  of  the  ordinary  rail- 
way stockholder  and  the  ordinary  shipper  but  of 
all  classes. 

It  will  command  the  support  of  the  ordinary  rail- 
way investor  because  it  gives  him  the  Government 
guaranty  of  a  certain  and — some  persons  think — a 
high  return  for  the  public  service  rendered  in  build- 
ing the  railway.  The  value  of  the  stocks  and 
bonds  held  by  our  various  financial  institutions, 
savings-banks,  insurance  companies,  trust  com- 
panies, etc.,  will  be  no  longer  subject  to  the  wiles 
of  the  speculator. 


1 92  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

The  railway  employee  will  vote  for  this  bill  be- 
cause it  secures  to  him  steady  employment,  with 
fair  wages  and  frequent  payments  for  a  short  day's 
service.  The  rest  of  the  community,  the  shipper 
and  the  consignee,  the  producer  and  the  consumer, 
the  workman  and  the  employer,  will  demand  its 
enactment  because  it  makes  the  tax  on  business 
and  on  travel  low,  uniform,  stable,  and  places  the 
determination  of  all  transport  taxes  in  the  hands  of 
the  representatives  of  the  whole  people. 

The  following  is  a  brief  summary  of  this  new 
declaration  of  law  and  of  the  principles  of  our 
federal  government. 

Recognizing  the  fact  that  the  management  of  our 
Royal-Railed  Highways  is  a  matter  of  public  con- 
venience, of  public  prosperity,  of  public  security, 
a  matter  of  the  highest  National  importance,  this 
bill  provides  that  these  Roads — long  designated 
Post-Roads — shall  be  brought  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Post-office,  and  that  the  rates  for 
transportation  on  these  Post- Roads  shall  be  deter- 
mined on  the  Postal  principle. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  is  made  a 
part  of  the  Postal  Department,  and  the  Consoli- 
dated Department  is  to  consist  of  the  Postmaster- 
General  and  ten  associates,  including  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commissioners.  The  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral is  to  be  the  head  of  the  Department,  and  each 
of  his  ten  associates  is  to  be  the  head  of  a  postal 
division  corresponding  to  one  of  the  ten  groups 
into  which  the  railway  system  of  the  country  has 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  193 

been  divided  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion. Each  of  these  ten  postal  divisions  is  to  be 
divided  into  as  many  postal  districts  as  there  are 
states  and  territories  in  such  division,  and  each  of 
these  postal  districts  is  to  have  a  postal  director 
who  shall  be  responsible  for  the  postal  business 
within  his  district.  Where,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Postal  Department,  the  successful  management  of 
the  business  requires  more  than  one  Postal  Direc- 
tor in  a  state  or  territory,  such  state  or  territory  is 
to  be  divided  into  two  or  more  postal  districts, 
each  of  which  is  to  have  its  duly  appointed  postal 
director. 

The  Postal  Department — the  Postmaster-General 
and  his  ten  associates — are  authorized,  in  behalf  of 
the  United  States,  to  take  possession  of  the  various 
railroads — post-roads — and  other  transport  agen- 
cies needed  in  the  proposed  service,  and  to  guar- 
antee to  their  owners  an  annual  return  on  their 
securities  equal  to  the  average  annual  return  paid 
during  the  seven  years  ending  June  30,  1897. 

Temporary  contracts  may  be  made  for  the  use  of 
any  railroad  or  other  transport  agency  found  by 
the  Department  to  be  a  convenience  or  necessity 
in  its  business;  such  contracts  to  secure  to  the  De- 
partment the  complete  control  of  the  various 
services  and  to  cover  terms  not  longer  than  three 
years.  Within  five  years  from  the  passage  of  the 
bill  all  the  existing  railroads  in  the  United  States 
required  for  the  use  of  the  Post-office  are  to  be 

under  its  permanent  management. 
13 


IQ4  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

In  the  case  of  railroads  or  other  transport  agencies 
that  have  only  met  the  interest  on  their  bonds 
during  the  seven  years  ending  June  30,  1897,  the 
government  is  to  guarantee  the  continued  payment 
of  the  stated  interest,  and  these  bonds  are  to  be 
considered  as  representing  the  value  of  the  proper- 
ties. Where  railroads  and  other  transport  agencies 
taken  possession  of  by  the  Postal  Department  have 
not  more  than  paid  expenses  during  the  five  years 
prior  to  June  30,  1897,  the  Department  is  to  ascer- 
tain what  it  would  cost  to  reproduce  such  proper- 
ties, and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  to  issue 
2\  per  cent,  bonds  payable  forty  years  from  their 
date  to  the  holders  of  the  bona-fide  securities 
representing  such  properties,  pro  rata. 

The  securities  on  which  dividends  or  interest 
are  guaranteed  by  the  United  States  Government 
are  to  be  duly  registered,  and,  on  due  notice,  the 
holder  of  such  securities  is  to  have  the  privilege  of 
converting  the  same  into  2-j-  per  cent,  forty-year 
Government  bonds,  the  securities  thus  converted 
to  be  duly  accounted  for  and  cancelled. 

If  at  any  time  after  June  30,  1897,  and  before  it 
is  taken  under  the  control  of  the  Government,  the 
value  of  any  railroad  or  other  transport  agency  be 
diminished  by  the  sale  or  assignment  of  any  prop- 
erty belonging  to  such  railroad  or  other  transport 
agency,  the  value  of  the  property  thus  sold  or 
assigned  is  to  be  ascertained  by  the  Postal  Depart- 
ment, and  its  aggregate  amount  is  to  be  substracted 
from  the  aggregate  amount  of  the  value  of  such 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  195 

road  or  other  transport  agency  as  represented  by 
the  par  value  of  its  different  securities;  the  divi- 
dends or  interest  guaranteed  by  the  Government 
are  then  to  be  estimated  on  the  balance  and  to  be 
divided  pro  rata  among  the  holders  of  the  different 
securities. 

These  provisions  are  not  to  cover  the  securities 
of  car-trusts  or  similar  associations,  as  it  is  intended 
that  the  Government  shall  either  purchase  or  man- 
ufacture its  equipment. 

The  railway  employee  is  to  be  paid  at  least  as 
often  as  once  every  two  weeks  for  a  service  of 
forty-eight  hours  a  week  and  at  fair  wages.  Ap- 
pointments are  to  be  made  according  to  civil-service 
rules. 

All  transport  tolls  are  to  be  prepaid,  and,  except 
in  the  case  of  infants  in  arms  and  certain  public 
officials,  everybody  is  to  pay  the  same  fare  for  the 
same  service.  With  these  exceptions  and  except 
in  the  case  of  Government  supplies  and  Govern- 
ment publications,  there  are  to  be  no  passes  or 
rebates  or  reductions  in  tolls. 

The  transfer  of  funds  between  the  Postal  Depart- 
ment and  the  United  States  Treasury  is  to  be 
made  through  agents  of  the  Treasury  to  be  located 
in  the  same  towns  as  the  various  Postal  Directors. 

The  Passenger  Post  includes  a  Local,  Express, 
and  Fast  Post. 

The  Local  Post  includes  railway  trains  stopping 
at  all  stations,  and  trains  stopping  within  average 
distances  of  fifteen  miles. 


196  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

The  Express  Post  includes  trains  scheduled  to 
stop  within  average  distances  of  fifteen  to  forty 
miles,  and  to  run  at  a  speed  of  not  less  than  thirty 
miles  an  hour. 

The  Fast  Post  includes  trains  stopping  for  pass- 
engers within  average  distances  of  not  less  than 
forty  miles,  and  scheduled  to  run  at  a  speed  of  not 
less  than  forty  miles  an  hour. 

Railway  passenger  cars  are  classified  as  Ordinary 
and  as  Palace  cars,  and  the  fares  are  as  follows: 

By  Local  Post,  Ordinary  cars $  .05  per  trip. 

"      Palace         "    $  .25    "      " 

By  Express  Post,  Ordinary  cars...  $  .25    "      " 

"      Palace         "    ...  $1.00    "      " 

By  Fast  Post,  Ordinary  cars $1.00    "      " 

"       "        "      Palace         "     $5.00    "      " 

These  fares  are  only  for  continuous  trips  in  one 
direction. 

No  stop-overs  are  allowed. 

Travellers  beyond  the  run  of  the  car  or  train  of 
departure  will  be  provided  with  the  necessary 
transfers. 

The  additional  tax  for  the  use  of  sleepers  will  be 
as  follows: 

PER  NIGHT  OR 
FRACTION  THEREOF. 

Tourist's  cars,  Upper  Berth $  .25 

"  Lower  "  $  .35 

Palace  "  Upper  "  $  .75 

"  Lower  "  $1.00 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  197 

There  will  be  no  free  baggage,  except  such  as  the 
passenger  may  be  allowed  to  carry  with  him  in  the 
passenger  car.  The  rate  per  piece  of  baggage,  one 
hundred  weight  and  under,  will  be  five  cents  each 
per  trip  of  the  owner;  above  one  hundred  and  not 
over  two  hundred,  ten  cents,  etc.  The  rate  on 
bicycles  will  be  five  cents  each  per  trip  of  owner. 
Parcels  are  to  be  cared  for  in  stations  for  the  first 
24  hours  for  one  cent  each;  after  the  first  24  hours, 
ten  cents  each  for  each  additional  24  hours  or  frac- 
tion thereof.  With  arrangements  for  the  tax  on 
special  trains  and  cars,  this  will  cover  the  entire 
passenger  schedule  of  the  whole  country. 

The  proposed  Zone  of  Travel  by  the  United 
States  Post  may  be  fairly  styled  The  Zone  of  Nec- 
essity. In  theory,  this  zone  is  limited  as  to  dis- 
tance, even  for  a  five-cent  fare,  only  by  the  extent 
of  the  transport  system  of  the  United  States  Post- 
office.  International  conventions  will  soon,  I 
trust,  extend  it  to  include  the  transport  systems  of 
Mexico  and  of  Canada. 

In  practice,  the  only  limit  to  any  continuous  trip 
in  one  direction  will  be  the  limit  of  necessity.  If 
the  Boston  traveller  can  make  the  necessary  con- 
nections by  the  comparatively  slow  service  of  the 
Local  Post,  his  five-cent  fare  will  take  him  through 
to  any  station  in  the  United  States  at  which  his 
train  stops,  even  to  the  Golden  Gate. 

It  will  probably  be  necessary,  however,  in  order 
to  altogether  prevent  speculation  in  transfer  checks, 
to  limit  their  use  to  the  day  of  their  date,  and  I 


198  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

have  so  provided  in  my  Bill.  Railroad  conductors 
are  to  give  their  entire  attention  to  the  running  of 
their  trains.  Regular  tickets  are  to  be  deposited 
in  receiving  urns  at  the  station  of  the  traveller's 
departure,  as  is  the  case  to-day  with  the  New  Eng- 
land electrics.  The  traveler  beyond  the  run  of 
the  train  of  departure  will  receive  a  transfer  when 
he  purchases  his  regular  ticket,  and  this  transfer — 
colored  red,  white,  or  blue  to  indicate  the  service 
used  and  stamped  with  the  date  of  the  purchase  of 
the  regular  ticket — this  transfer  will  pass  the  travel- 
ler as  far  as  the  run  of  the  car  or  train  on  which  he 
may  be  seated  at  midnight  of  the  day  of  his  de- 
parture. Local  transfers  will  confine  the  bearer  to 
the  use  of  local  services.  Express  transfers  will  be 
good  on  both  express  and  local  services,  while  fast 
transfers  will  entitle  the  traveller  to  his  choice  of 
the  services  of  the  Post-office. 

This  necessary  limit  in  the  use  of  transfers  will 
probably  make  a  Continental  trip  on  a  five-cent  fare 
rather  difficult,  but  a  five-cent  traveller  will  never- 
theless be  able  to  go  some  hundreds  of  miles  by  the 
local  postal  service  of  the  country  on  a  single  fare, 
if  he  can  afford  the  time  to  make  a  long  journey 
by  that  service.  Time,  however,  is  money;  it  is 
more  than  money.  Time  is  life,  and  the  time  saved 
by  the  use  of  the  Fast  and  the  Express  Post, 
together  with  their  low  rates,  will  ensure  the  em- 
ployment of  these  services  in  long-distance  travel. 
The  comparative  slowness  of  a  service  making  fre- 
quent stops  will  so  tax  the  time  of  the  traveller  that 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  199 

he  will  seldom  use  the  Local  Post  save  for  very 
short  journeys.  But  short  journeys  will  be  the 
rule,  long  journeys  the  exception.  The  demands 
of  affection,  the  necessity  of  earning  a  livelihood 
will  always  confine  the  ordinary  movements  of 
mankind  within  very  narrow  limits,  probably  to  the 
use  of  local  public  services.  Measured  by  distance, 
the  average  five-cent  trip  will,  probably,  be  less 
than  ten  miles;  measured  by  time,  I  doubt  if  the 
single  trip  of  the  average  traveller,  including  all 
the  different  services,  will  be  over  one  hour  or  over 
an  half  hour  by  local  services.  The  average  rail- 
way trip  of  to-day  in  the  United  States  is  less  than 
twenty-five  miles,  and  it  can  occupy  hardly  more 
than  one  hour. 

The  proposed  tolls,  ten  cents  the  round  trip  by 
Local  Post,  fifty  cents  by  Express,  and  two  dollars 
by  Fast  Post — these  tolls  will  tie  the  average  family 
quite  close  enough  to  the  disadvantages  of  its  native 
heath.  A  five-cent  fare — ten  cents  a  round  trip — 
is  a  ten  per  cent,  tax  on  the  dollar-a-day  income, 
which  is  all  that  the  average  Massachusetts  farmer 
has  received  for  his  labor  of  superintendence  and 
manual  toil  for  the  last  ten  years,  and  on  such 
workers  as  the  Anthracite  coal-miners,  ' '  who  work 
for  ninety  cents  a  day,  and  except  on  the  '  boom 
curves  '  of  business  may  get  work  less  than  half  the 
time,"  on  such  workers  this  tax  of  ten  cents  a 
round  trip  is  nearer  a  twenty  per  cent,  income  tax. 
—  Yale  Review,  May,  1897,  page  64,  and  Novem- 
ber, 1897,  page  307.  This  proposed  local  toll  is 


20O  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

certainly  all  that  the  average  human  being  should 
be  called  upon  to  bear.  Experience  will  soon  de- 
monstrate, I  believe,  the  practicability  of  reducing 
this  toll,  by  at  least  fifty  per  cent.,  while  it  will 
also  be  found  possible  to  consolidate  the  Express 
and  Fast  Post,  both  in  passenger  and  freight  ser- 
vice, and  to  adopt  the  Express  rate  for  the  consoli- 
dated service. 

Had  this  proposed  scheme  been  in  operation,  the 
recent  troubles  in  the  coal  regions  (referred  to  in 
The  Yale  Review  of  November,  1897)  could  not 
have  occurred.  At  the  very  time  when  some  poor, 
half-starved  miners  were  shot  in  a  riot  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, there  were  quantities  of  fruit  in  California, 
decaying  for  lack  of  hands  to  gather  it.  Had 
these  poor  fellows  been  able  to  get  to  that  work 
they  would  be  alive  to-day,  and  the  whole  country 
would  be  the  richer  for  their  existence.  The 
writer  of  the  Review  article  says  that  these  miners 
are  kept  on  hand  like  so  many  surplus  cattle  to 
meet  any  extra  demands  of  the  business,  and  the 
managers  bluntly  say  that  it  is  necessary  every  once 
in  a  while  to  shoot  some  of  them. 

A  mine  manager  of  twenty  years'  experience 
said  :  "  The  truth  is,  that  the  time  came  when 
somewhere  hereabouts  we  had  got  to  do  some 
shooting.  It  could  not  be  put  off  much  longer." 
The  question  was  put  to  him,  "  When  will  you  have 
to  do  some  more  shooting  ?  "  The  reply  was,  "  In 
hard  times  it  is  likely  to  come  at  any  moment." 

The  object  of  this  scheme  is  to  prevent  the  re- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2OI 

currence  of  such  fearful  tragedies.  It  is  cruel  to 
tie  men  to  the  soil  and  then  to  shoot  them  when 
they  are  hungry.  I  would  break  these  bonds, 
would  widen  the  opportunities  for  every  human 
being  to  get  a  living.  The  wealth  of  a  country  is 
in  its  humanity. 

Arthur  M.  Wellington  goes  so  far  as  to  advocate 
the  extension  of  the  system  of  uniform  rates  not 
only  from  station  to  station,  but  from  door  to  door. 
"  For  it  is  evident,"  he  says,  "  that  as  respects 
freight  traffic,  rates  must,  in  the  long  run,  be  made 
equal  not  simply  from  station  to  station,  but  from 
the  door  of  the  consignor  to  the  door  of  the  con- 
signee," and  a  little  further  on  he  suggests  the  use 
of  free  omnibuses  between  the  different  stations 
and  the  homes  of  the  people,  in  order  to  secure  a 
similar  equality  of  passenger  traffic. — Wellington, 
Economic  Theory  of  Railway  Location,  pages  54, 
197. 

The  adoption  of  this  scheme  will  be  one  long 
step  toward  the  embodiment  of  the  thought  of  this 
eminent  railway  authority  in  law. 

LETTER    AND    PARCELS    POST. 

Postal  cards  and  letters  up  to  one  ounce  in 
weight,  and  parcels  not  over  one  pound  in  weight 
— the  size  and  shape  of  cards,  envelopes,  and  of 
parcels  to  be  determined  by  the  Department — are 
to  be  collected  and  delivered  within  the  limits  of 
the  ordinary  postal  delivery  for  one  cent.  On 


202  A    GENERAL  WEIGHT 

letters  over  one  ounce  in  weight,  the  postage  shall 

be  one  cent  for  each  additional  ounce  or  fraction 

thereof. 

On  parcels  over  i  pound  and  not  over  5  pounds, 

the  postage  is  to  be  5  cents. 
On  parcels  over  5  pounds  and  not  over  10  pounds, 

the  postage  is  to  be  10  cents. 
On  parcels  over  10  pounds  and  not  over  30  pounds, 

the  postage  is  to  be  15  cents. 
On  parcels  over  30  pounds  and  not  over  60  pounds, 

the  postage  is  to  be  20  cents. 
On   parcels    over   60   pounds   and    not   over    100 

pounds,  the  postage  is  to  be  25  cents. 
With  an  additional  5  cents  for  each  additional 
20  pounds,  up  to  an  amount  to  be  determined  by 
the  Department. 

These  parcel  rates  are  to  include  baggage,  bicy- 
cles, books,  newspapers,  and  all  kinds  of  merchan- 
dise not  of  a  deleterious  character.  Everything 
sent  by  letter  and  parcels  post  is  to  be  forwarded 
by  the  fastest  service  within  the  control  of  the 
Department. 

THE    FREIGHT    POST. 

Freight  is  to  be  classified  as  "Box-Car"  and 
"Open-Car"  freight,  and  as  "Car-load"  and 
"  Less  than  Car-load  "  freight. 

The  term  "Box-Car"  freight  is  to  cover  all 
freight  carried  in  Box-cars  or  under  shelter. 

The  term  "Open-Car"  freight  is  to  cover  all 
freight  carried  on  Open-cars  or  without  shelter. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  203 

The  term  "  Car-load  "  covers  all  freight  loaded 
and  unloaded  by  shippers  and  consignees. 

The  term  "Less  than  Car-load"  covers  all 
freight  handled  by  Postal  employees. 

Freight  is  also  to  be  classified  as  Local,  Express, 
and  Fast  Freight. 

The  time  for  loading  and  for  transportation  is  to 
be  as  follows: 
Local  Freight. 

Time  for  loading  by  the  Department  "  Less 
than  Car-load  Freight,"  48  hours. 

Time  for  loading  by  shippers'  "  Car-load  " 
freight,  8  hours,  of  daylight. 

Time  for  transportation,  for  distances  not  ex- 
ceeding 100  miles,  24  hours. 

For  each  additional  150  miles  or  fraction  thereof, 
24  hours. 

Express  Freight. 

Time  for  loading  by  the  Department  "  Less  than 
Car-loads,"  24  hours. 

Time  for  loading  by  shippers  ''Car-loads,  8 
hours,  of  daylight.  Speed,  200  miles  a  day. 

Fast  Freight. 

Fast  freight  may  be  forwarded  by  passenger 
trains  and  will,  in  all  cases,  be  forwarded  by  the 
fastest  freight  service  within  the  control  of  the 
Department. 

The  time  for  loading  fast  freight  both  by  the 
Department  and  by  shippers,  will  be  8  hours,  of 
daylight. 


2O4  A    GENERAL   EX  EIGHT 

The  time  for  transportation,  for  each  300  miles 
or  fraction  thereof,  will  be  24  hours. 

DEMURRAGE. 

Shippers  and  consignees  will  be  allowed  8  hours 
of  daylight  for  loading,  and  8  hours  for  unloading, 
after  which  there  will  be  a  demurrage  tax  of  five 
cents  an  hour  for  the  first  48  hours  of  delay,  and 
ten  cents  an  hour  after  48  hours. 

The  use  of  a  car  will  be  paid  for  before  it  is 
turned  over  to  the  shipper  to  be  loaded. 

The  postage  on  "  Car-load  "  freight,  regardless 
of  the  quantity  of  freight  up  to  the  car's  capacity 
and  limited  in  character  only  by  the  general  laws 
of  the  United  States  and  by  the  rules  of  the  Depart- 
ment, from  the  point  of  departure  to  the  destination 
stated  in  the  bill  of  lading  within  the  railroad 
system  of  the  Post-office,  will  be  as  follows: 

On  Local  freight,  per  standard  Box-car,  $6.00  per 

haul. 
On  Local  freight,   per  standard  Open-car,  $5.00 

per  haul. 

On  Less  than  Car-load  freight,  the  postage  will  be: 
On  Local  freight,  carried  in  Box-cars,  $0.05  per 

100  per  haul,  $1.00  per  ton  per  haul. 
On  Local  freight,  in  Open-cars,  $o.o2-J-  per  100  per 

haul,  $0.50  per  ton  per  haul. 

No  consignments  of  less  than  car-load  freight  are 
to  be  received  for  less  than  fifteen  cents. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2O$ 

The  postage  on  express  freight  shall  be  twice 
that  on  local  freight;  on  fast  freight,  three  times 
the  local  rate. 

The  rates  on  private  cars  will  be  the  same  as  on 
Department  cars,  and  this  whether  full  or  empty. 

This  Bill,  says  George  Rice,  the  noted  opponent 
of  monopoly,  strikes  the  key-note  of  the  greatest 
of  all  questions  in  the  interest  of  the  people,  and  it 
will  go  through  without  doubt  by  1900,  sure. 

George  R.  Blanchard,  of  the  Joint  Traffic  Com- 
mission, sums  up  his  long  argument  on  "  Railway 
Pools,"  in  the  following  quotation  from  the  report 
of  the  Committee  of  the  German  Empire  made 
prior  to  its  purchase  of  its  main  railway  lines: 

' '  The  uniting  of  the  property,  of  the  traffic  and 
of  the  management  of  the  inland  main  lines  UNDER 

THE    STRONG    ARM    OF    THE    STATE    ARE    THE    ONLY 
EFFICIENT      AND      PROPER     MEANS     TO     SOLVE     THE 

TASK.  ' ' — Railway  Pools,  by  George  R.  Blanchard, 
page  34. 

It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  I  quote  this 
great  railway  authority  in  behalf  of  my  proposition 
that  the  management  of  our  Royal-Railed  High- 
ways is  a  governmental  function.  I  am  equally 
glad  to  be  able  to  quote  him  in  behalf  of  the  postal 
principle  for  the  determination  of  railway  tolls. 
Mr.  Blanchard  was  one  of  the  witnesses  in  the 
Milk  case  tried  before  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  in  New  York  City,  in  December,  1895. 
The  rates  were  uniform  for  all  distances  up  to  330 
miles.  I  heard  Mr.  Blanchard  testify  that  there 


206  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

was  no  good  reason  why  the  uniform  rate  should 
not  be  extended  to  1000  miles,  and  so  contended 
the  entire  array  of  railway  counsel.  "  The  cost  of 
the  service  rendered  was  in  no  real  sense  depend- 
ent on  the  length  of  the  haul." 

I  have  before  me  the  latest  transcontinental  tariff 
sheets  of  a  Western  Railroad  System.  Its  rates 
are  uniform  on  thousands  of  articles  to  and  from  all 
points  between  the  Pacific  Coast  Terminals  and  all 
points  east  of  the  Missouri  River.  These  rates, 
however,  are  as  unstable  as  a  sick  man's  whims, 
and  they  are  always  based  on  the  principle  which 
Mr.  Wm.  M.  Snow  of  Boston  told  the  National 
League  of  Commission  Merchants  last  winter  gov- 
erned a  certain  railroad  corporation,  namely,  that 
of  transferring  to  the  hands  of  the  railways,  as 
nearly  as  possible,  the  value  of  the  produce  carried. 

Concerning  this  corporation,  in  which  several 
States  are  already  pooled,  the  Boston  Herald  said 
in  a  recent  issue: 

"  The  interests  of  certain  capitalists  control  the 
'  steel  highways  '  from  New  York  to  Boston  with 
a  grip  that  lets  nothing  escape.  They  also  control 
certain  steamboat  lines.  Should  a  certain  boat 
line  cut  rates  on  freight  by  steamer  direct  between 
New  York  and  Boston,  the  club  that  a  certain  rail- 
road corporation  holds  up  is  the  threat  of  a  new 
line  of  steamers  to  compete  with  the  other's  boats. 
And  recently  these  capitalists  came  to  an  agree- 
ment, so  that  this  corporation  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  other  roundabout  routes  from  Boston." 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2O? 

"  The  marketmen  claim  that  they  can  get  Michi- 
gan peaches  to  Boston  cheaper  than  Jersey  peaches 
by  the  monopoly.  Michigan  is  900  miles  from 
Boston,  and  New  Jersey  is  300." 

"  George  M.  Mead  exhibited  a  freight  bill  from 
this  corporation,  and  said  it  was  fifty  per  cent, 
higher  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  it  did  not 
have  control  of  the  boat  lines." 

Boston  shippers  will  hardly  favor  the  further 
pooling  of  the  public  steel  highways  under  an  as- 
sociation of  which  one  of  the  leading  directors  of 
this  corporation  is  President.  They  will  be  much 
more  likely  to  join  in  the  seductive  movement 
to  pool  these  Royal-Railed  Highways  under  the 
United  States  Post-office,  and  to  make  these  high- 
ways a  means  of  serving  the  public  rather  than 
of  robbing  the  public.  The  governing  spirit  of  our 
age  is  co-operation.  The  creed  of  the  mediaeval 
Baron,  "  What  the  traffic  will  bear,"  "  Your  money 
or  your  life,"  is  out  of  place  in  modern  civilization. 

Returning  to  the  discussion  of  "  The  cost  of  the 
service  principle,"  which  is  to  determine  the  future 
tax  on  the  movements  of  persons  and  of  produce 
upon  our  public  highways,  I  call  attention  to  the 
following  statement,  made  by  Mr.  James  Peabody, 
of  the  Railway  Review  of  Chicago,  May  16,  1891, 
in  an  editorial  upon  my  article,  "  The  Application 
of  the  Postal  Principle  to  Railway  Traffic,"  pub- 
lished in  the  same  issue. 

"It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  idea  was  first 
suggested  to  Mr.  Cowles  by  a  well-known  gentle- 


208  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

man  who  was  for  many  years  President  of  a  New 
England  Railway,  and  who  is  especially  noted  for 
his  shrewdness  and  ability.  It  is  not  supposed  that 
the  idea,  although  not  without  merit,  in  many  re- 
spects, will  be  received  with  any  degree  of  favor, 
at  least  so  long  as  INDIVIDUAL  OWNERSHIP  OBTAINS 

IN  OUR  RAILWAY  SYSTEM,  BUT,  GIVEN  GOVERNMENT 
OWNERSHIP,  IT  IS  UNDENIABLE  THAT  SUCH  A  RE- 
SULT is  A  NATURAL  SEQUENCE."  And,  in  confir- 
mation of  the  ideas  advanced  by  Mr.  Cowles,  Mr. 
Peabody  cites  an  instance  in  his  own  experience, 
where,  being  "  called  upon  to  defend  a  tariff  he 
had  made  in  which  the  rate  on  wheat,  car-loads, 
was  fixed  at  ten  cents  per  100  for  no  miles  in  one 
direction,  and  twelve  cents  per  100  for  322  miles 
in  the  opposite  direction,  he  was  obliged  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  tariff  in  question,  like  all  others, 
was  simply  the  result  of  COMPARISON  AND  GUESS- 
WORK, MODIFIED  BY  EXPERIENCE,"  and  had  no 
basis  either  of  justice  or  of  reason.  His  tariff  was 
proved  to  be  wholly  indefensible.  The  most  care- 
ful calculation  showed  that  the  cost  was  practically 
the  same  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other.  The 
difference  in  the  cost  for  the  haul  of  the  115  miles 
and  332  miles  on  a  hundred  of  wheat  was  but  "  a 
small  fraction  of  a  cent." 

To  the  same  effect  is  the  testimony  of  S.  P. 
Bush,  Superintendent  of  Locomotive  Power  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Lines  West  of  Pittsburgh,  that  there 
is  no  practical  difference  in  the  cost  of  the  haulage 
of  full  and  of  empty  cars.  In  the  E?igineering 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2OQ 

News,  of  June  3,  1897,  Mr.  Bush  states  that  on  a 
run  of  115  miles  from  Chicago,  111.,  to  Logansport, 
Ind.,  an  increase  in  the  load  of  a  freight  train  of 
thirty-two  cars  from  750  to  1050  tons  occasioned 
the  use  of  but  400  pounds  more  coal.  In  other 
words,  the  cost  to  the  road  for  the  haul  of  the  ad- 
ditional 300  tons  of  freight,  a  distance  of  115  miles, 
was  but  the  cost  of  400  pounds  of  coal,  less  than 
fifty  cents,  less  than  one  sixth  of  a  cent  per  ton  for 
the  haul  of  115  miles. 

Note  also  the  recent  testimony  of  President  A. 
B.  Stickney  of  the  Chicago  and  Great  Western  Rail- 
road, that  the  expenditure  of  a  very  small  amount 
of  money  in  reducing  the  grades  on  368  miles  of 
his  line  would  render  possible  an  increase  in  the 
average  train-load  from  460  to  650  tons  without 
any  increased  expense  in  the  cost  of  the  haul. 

Observe  further  that  forty  per  cent,  of  freight- 
car  mileage  is  of  empty  cars,  and,  since  it  costs  no 
more  to  haul  a  loaded  than  an  empty  car,  it  there- 
fore follows  that  whatever  business  may  be  secured 
for  these  empty  cars  by  the  proposed  low,  uniform, 
stable  rates,  will  cost  the  Post-office  nothing.  And 
as  to  loaded  cars,  added  to  existing  trains,  up  to 
the  capacity  of  the  locomotives,  the  only  expense 
incurred  by  the  addition  of  an  extra  car  to  a  train 
will  be  the  cost  of  a  little  more  coal  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  car.  Two  hundred  dollars  would 
unquestionably  pay  the  average  cost  of  the  use  of 
such  extra  cars,  carrying  twenty  tons  of  freight  and 
making  one  hundred  paying  trips  of  125  miles  each 


210  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

in  the  course  of  a  year.  The  average  earnings  of 
such  a  car  at  $6  per  trip  would  be  $600.  If  it  were 
a  box  car,  loaded  and  unloaded  by  Government 
employees,  then  at  50  cents  a  ton  it  would  earn 
$1000,  and  at  $i  a  ton  it  would  earn  $2000. 

According  to  Poor's  Manual,  of  1897,  the  aver- 
age railroad  transport  tax  of  the  Middle  States,  for 
the  year  ending  June  30,  1896,  was  but  63.75  cents 
per  ton  for  an  average  haul  of  93.40  miles.  At  ten 
tons  to  the  car-load — and  the  average  car-load  is 
hardly  over  ten  tons — the  average  freight  car  of  the 
Middle  States,  in  the  year  1896,  earned  less  than 
$6.40  on  an  average  trip  of  93.40  miles.  Yet  at 
even  this  rate,  and  with  average  train-loads  of  but 
2io|  tons,  the  railroads  of  the  Middle  States  made 
net  earnings  of  $4096  per  mile  of  road,  or  nearly 
five  per  cent,  on  a  capitalization  of  $82,000  a  mile. 
The  roads  of  this  section,  levying  upon  business 
the  lowest  average  transport  tax  in  the  country 
earned  more  per  mile  of  road  than  did  the  roads  in 
any  other  section  of  the  country.  The  New  Eng- 
land Roads,  levying  upon  business  a  transport  tax 
of  over  $1.84  a  train  mile  on  train-loads  of  less 
than  152  tons,  and  over  $i  per  ton  for  average 
hauls  of  but  82.09  miles,  made  net  earnings  of  less 
than  $2850.  Taxing  business  full  one  third  more 
than  did  the  Middle  States  roads,  the  New  Eng- 
land roads  earned  per  mile  of  road  one  third  less. 
By  restricting  the  business  of  their  patrons,  the 
New  England  roads  injured  themselves. 

The  following  table,  made  up  from  the  Railroad 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


211 


Reports  of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  and 
Illinois,  gives  the  tonnage  handled  and  the  average 
transport  tax  per  haul,  per  ton,  on  several  lines, 
for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1895: 


NAME  OF  ROAD. 

Tons. 

Length  of 
haul. 

Rate  per  ton 
per  haul. 

Pittsburg  &  Lake  Erie 
Cleveland  &  Pittsburgh 
Pittsburgh,       Youngs- 
town  &  Ashtabula.  . 
The  Pennsylvania.  .  .  . 
The  Northern  Central 
The  Pine  Creek  .  . 

8,413,980 
3,719,014 

3,934,760 
55,625,107 

13,072,559 
4.  8<6  8*4. 

Miles. 
67.63 
79-5 

42-47 
139- 
64. 

AC 

Cents. 

45.6 

55.3 

26.1 

78.5 

17  ^l8 

The  Beech  Creek  .... 
The  Fall  Brook  

3,162,295 
3,200  608 

98. 
33. 

37.5 

18 

All  Michigan  Railways 
All  Illinois  Railways  . 
Ohio  Railways  for  1896 
Wheeling  &  Lake  Erie 

32,750,113 
61,846,163 
95,345,107 
2,307,541 

75-84 
75-85 
72.89 
114.84 

about  58. 
74.319 
55- 
54-4 

If  such  rates  are  possible  under  the  present 
wasteful  management  of  our  Royal-Railed  High- 
ways, then  surely  the  rates  I  have  suggested  will 
be  altogether  possible  under  the  wonderful  econo- 
mies that  will  attend  the  pooling  of  the  business  by 
the  Post-office. 

A  word  as  to  some  of  these  economies.  The 
Boston  Herald,  of  March  25,  1897,  estimated  that 
the  abolition  of  a  certain  traffic  association  would 
free  the  country  from  an  unnecessary  tax  of  $750,- 
ooo  a  year,  and  the  abolition  of  the  whole  system 
of  traffic  associations  would  bring  up  the  savings  on 
this  one  line  to  $2,000,000  a  year.  Isaac  B.  Brown, 


212  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

Superintendent  of  the  Railway  Bureau  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, points  to  a  possible  saving  of  $30,000,000  a 
year  in  the  abolition  of  the  system  of  hiring  private 
cars  by  railway  companies. 

The  pooling  of  the  business  can  hardly  fail  to 
double  the  utility  of  the  freight  equipment.  The 
proposed  shortening  of  the  demurrage  limit  will 
still  further  increase  the  possibilities  of  the  freight 
service.  It  is  said  that  the  substitution  of  steel 
for  wood  in  the  construction  of  freight  cars  will 
make  a  possible  saving  in  the  haul  of  dead  weight 
of  $31,250,000  a  year,  while  the  economies  in 
maintenance  and  in  increased  use  of  the  better 
equipment  will  amount  to  full  as  much  more. — R. 
R.  Gazette,  February  26,  1897;  R.  R.  Review, 
January  13,  1897. 

As  to  passenger  business,  recent  experience  in 
this  country  proves  conclusively  that  low  rates, 
uniform  rates,  combined  with  convenient  service — 
and  the  one  is  almost  as  essential  as  the  other — will 
both  increase  railway  traffic  and  increase  railway 
profits. 

In  September,  1896,  the  Blue  Island  Line  of  the 
Chicago  &  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  adopted  a 
uniform  five-cent  fare  for  all  stations  from  the 
Grand  Central  Depot,  Chicago,  to  Blue  Island, 
twenty  miles.  In  two  days,  said  the  Chicago 
Record,  of  April  17,  1897,  the  business  doubled, 
and  it  has  grown  steadily  ever  since.  "  The  man- 
agement of  the  road  is  satisfied  that  the  '  nickel  ' 
rate  is  no  longer  an  experiment.  This  is  indicated 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  21$ 

by  the  fact  that  before  June  ist  the  service  of  ten 
trains  will  be  increased  to  twenty  a  day,  and  the 
suburbanites,  living  along  this  line,  will  have  a 
street-car  service  on  a  steam  road  of  standard 
guage.  The  five-cent  fare  is  building  up  the 
country  through  which  the  Blue  Island  Line  passes, 
and  the  real  estate  men  are  preparing  to  lay  out 
new  subdivisions  and  make  many  improvements, 
believing  that  the  investment  will  pay  because  of 
the  drawing  power  of  the  nickel  rate." 

A  Chicago  friend,  writing  to  me  in  September, 
1897,  says  that  this  line  runs  though  a  very  thinly 
settled,  swampy  country,  for  population  scarcely 
equal  to  the  average  farming  country,  yet  they  are 
now  running  heavy  trains,  well  filled,  and  the  busi- 
ness continues  to  grow.  The  road  never  paid  ex- 
penses until  they  adopted  the  present  plan;  it  is 
now  making  money.  There  are  no  commutation 
tickets.  Everybody  pays  five  cents  a  ride.  There 
is  more  money,  says  Manager  S.  R.  Ainslie,  in  a 
uniform  five-cent  fare  than  in  a  three-cent-a-mile 
fare. 

The  reduction  of  fares  in  connection  with  the 
substitution  of  the  electric  motor  for  the  steam 
locomotive  on  certain  roads,  has  been  followed  by 
almost  more  startling  results  than  those  just  noted. 

When  the  Street  Railway  Law  of  1893  was  passed 
by  the  Connecticut  Legislature,  the  counsel  of  a 
great  railroad  added  a  proviso  that,  unless  author- 
ized by  special  charter  granted  before  January  i, 
1893,  no  electric  tramway  should  be  built  on  a 


214  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

public  highway  which  it  paralleled,  until  a  Superior 
Court  Judge  had  first  declared  the  improvement  a 
public  convenience  and  necessity. 

Hartford,  the  capital  of  the  state,  has  a  popula- 
tion rapidly  approaching  75,000  ;  New  Britain, 
perhaps,  25,000.  Though  connected  by  two  roads, 
the  railroad  service  was  both  poor  and  inconvenient 
and  the  fares — sixty  cents  the  round  trip  of  about 
twenty-six  miles  by  a  branch  line  of  one  road,  and 
forty-six  cents  the  round  trip  of  eighteen  miles  by 
the  main  line  of  the  other — effectually  barred  the 
use  of  the  railroads  by  the  masses  of  both  com- 
munities. 

This  transport  tax,  an  income  tax  of  nearly 
twenty-five  per  cent,  on  a  wage  of  two  dollars  a 
day — this  enormous  tax  on  travel  proved  so  dead- 
ening to  the  traffic  between  these  growing  towns 
that  the  business  hardly  paid  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  tracks.  The  traffic  proving  insufficient  for 
the  support  of  twelve  trains,  two  were  first  laid  off, 
then  two  more,  and  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
1897,  one  of  the  roads  had  a  daily  service  of  but 
eight  trains  each  way  between  Hartford  and  New 
Britain.  The  six  P.M.  train  from  New  Britain  had 
been  a  great  convenience  to  Hartford  citizens  earn- 
ing their  bread  in  New  Britain  shops,  but  it  was 
laid  off  among  the  rest,  and  after  its  removal,  these 
men,  hungry  at  once  for  their  suppers  and  for  a 
sight  of  their  little  ones,  were  compelled  to  hang 
about  the  New  Britain  streets  a  full  hour  waiting, 
waiting  for  this  public  service  to  carry  them  to  their 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  21$ 

homes.  It  seemed  to  be  the  determined  policy  of 
the  railroad  management  to  make  the  cost  of  rail- 
road travel  so  high,  the  service  so  inconvenient, 
that  no  man  could  live  in  one  town  upon  its  lines 
and  earn  his  living  in  another. 

And  this  spirit  was  manifested,  not  only  in  its 
wretched  local  service  and  its  prohibitive  taxes  on 
railroad  travel,  but  in  its  obstinate  opposition  to  the 
extension  of  the  electric  tramway  service  of  the 
state,  and  especially  in  the  case  of  the  proposed 
line  from  Hartford  to  New  Britain.  The  necessity 
for  a  quicker,  cheaper,  more  convenient  service 
between  the  two  cities  was  apparent  enough  to 
those  who  had  eyes  to  see  and  ears  to  hear,  but  the 
great  monopoly  had  neither  eyes  nor  ears  for  the 
consideration  of  the  public  interests,  and  it  blinded 
the  eyes  and  deafened  the  ears  of  those  whose 
duty  it  was  to  protect  the  public  interests.  Appli- 
cation for  a  permit  to  build  this  Hartford-New 
Britain  tramway  was  twice  made  to  the  Superior 
Court,  and  twice  refused  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
neither  a  public  convenience  or  necessity.  The 
decision  of  the  Judge,  in  each  case,  however,  in- 
cluded the  significant  statement  that  the  building 
of  the  tramway  would  injure  the  railway. 

In  1895,  the  railroad  came  before  the  Connecti- 
cut Legislature  with  the  pitiful  plea  that  the  tram- 
ways already  built  on  the  public  highways  which  it 
paralleled  were  taking  away  its  local  business,  de- 
priving it  of  its  chartered  (?)  power  to  regulate  the 
movements  of  the  people  at  its  will,  and  protested 


2l6  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

against  the  building  of  any  more  such  roads.  It 
was  the  business  of  the  legislature  (so  I  heard  a 
distinguished  railroad  counsellor  declare)  to  pro- 
tect the  railroad  in  its  dividends.  The  eloquent 
address  of  another  counsellor,  one  of  the  vice- 
presidents  of  the  road,  in  behalf  of  the  orphans 
and  widows  whom  he  represented  —  such  puny 
orphans  and  such  delicate  widows  as  those  upon 
his  directors'  list,  including  the  leading  capitalists 
of  the  country, — almost  brought  tears  to  the  eyes 
of  his  sentimental  listeners.  Again  in  1897,  the 
Railroad  appeared  before  the  People's  Court  to 
contest  the  right  of  the  people  to  use  their  high- 
ways as  they  would,  and  in  the  course  of  a  hearing 
before  the  Railroad  Committee  as  to  whether  this 
Hartford-New  Britain  tramway  should  be  built, 
the  leading  counsel  of  the  road  actually  had  the 
audacity  to  put  to  a  tramway  witness  a  question  to 
this  effect:  "  Do  you  think  it  good  policy  to  allow 
a  man  to  earn  his  living  in  one  town  and  to  spend 
his  earnings  in  another  ?  " 

The  managers  of  the  railroad,  however,  had 
already  awakened  to  the  fact  that  revolution  was 
in  the  air.  They  had  to  revolutionize  their  service 
and  their  system  of  taxation  or  their  business 
would  be  revolutionized.  Electric  tramways  were 
to  be  built  wherever  the  people  wanted  them. 
The  only  hope  for  the  Railroad,  as  to  its  local  busi- 
ness, was  to  chain  the  lightning  to  its  own  wheels 
and  to  give  the  people  a  tramway  service  on  the 
railroad  at  something  like  tramway  fares.  To  this 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2  I/ 

end  it  had  made  a  series  of  experiments  on  its  line 
to  a  seashore  resort  near  Boston,  and  with  such 
success  that,  at  the  very  time  when  its  Counsel  was 
propounding  the  question  at  Hartford  as  to 
whether  a  Hartford  man  should  be  allowed  to 
work  in  a  New  Britain  shop,  the  railroad  was 
building  a  great  power  station  four  miles  from 
New  Britain,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  people 
between  the  two  cities  at  less  than  half  the  old 
rates,  and  with  a  thirty-six-train  service  running 
every  day  of  the  week  in  the  place  of  an  eight-train 
service  running  but  six  days  in  the  week. 

On  the  1 6th  of  February,  1897,  the  President  of 
the  road  appeared  before  the  Railroad  Committee 
at  Hartford,  and,  among  other  things,  said  that 
the  experiments  on  his  beach  line  had  already 
proved  the  practicability  of  using  electricity  on  the 
standard  railroad.  "  The  cost  of  its  application 
by  a  third  rail  was  about  one  fifth  of  the  cost  of  a 
trolley  line.  Our  locomotives  may  go  to  the  scrap 
heap  as  the  old  stage  coaches  had  to  go.  As  to 
the  cost  of  the  power  station:  The  charges  that 
have  been  paid  by  the  steam-railroad  for  lighting 
its  different  stations,  when  the  lighting  is  done  as 
an  incident  from  the  same  power,  will  pay  the  in- 
terest upon  it." 

He  even  proposed  a  fifteen-minute  service  be- 
tween Hartford  and  New  Britain,  or  a  service  of 
sixty-four  trains  a  day  each  way  as  substitute  for 
the  existing  eight-train  locomotive  service.  But 
he  could  not  forbear  a  fling  at  the  proposed  trolley 


218  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

line,  and  he  went  so  far  as  to  threaten  that  if  it 
were  built  he  might  remove  the  power  station,  tear 
up  the  third  rail,  and  so  deprive  the  people  of  the 
advantages  which  he  proposed  to  give  to  them. 
"We  do  not  like  this  parallel  scheme;  we  do  not 
want  it,  but  if  it  is  carried  forward,  it  will  remain 
for  the  public  to  determine  by  their  use  whether  it 
is  worth  while  for  steam-roads  to  make  further  de- 
velopments. All  the  machinery  of  the  power  station 
can  be  transferred  to  a  location  where  the  road  now 
does  a  business  of  four  and  a  half  millions  instead 
of  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  passengers  a 
year."  This  was  in  February,  1897. 

The  third  rail  was  opened  to  public  use,  May 
24th,  fare  ten  cents  each  way.  On  the  7th  of 
June,  the  following  paragraph  appeared  in  the 
Hartford  Courant. 


"  Statistics  of  the  First  Week's  Business. 

DATE.  PASSENGERS. 

May  24 3,332 

25 3,157 

26 2,703 

"    27 2,771 

28 3,025 

"    29 4,451 


30 8,068 

3i 9,5°9 


Total  for  eight  days 37,016 

Average,  daily 4,627 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2IQ 

"  The  Memorial  Day  travel,  of  course,  swelled 
the  average  very  much,  and  the  question  is  asked 
whether  the  Sunday  travel  will  be  as  great  after  the 
novelty  has  worn  off.  The  receipts  are  averaging 
about  $2750  a  week.  If  this  rate  is  maintained, 
then  the  mere  local  traffic  between  Hartford  and 
New  Britain  will  yield  gross  about  $15,000  a  mile 
on  those  ten  miles  of  road,  independent  of  their 
share  of  all  the  rest  of  local  and  through  business 
done  on  the  road.  The  average  earnings  of  the 
whole  road  per  mile  in  1896  were  about  $10,000." 

The  parallel  trolley  line  commenced  operations 
a  few  days  later.  The  annual  report  of  the  road, 
issued  October  28,  1897,  says  :  "  The  passenger 
business  between  Hartford  and  New  Britain  over 
this  road  had  for  some  time  averaged  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  passengers  per  day.  It  was  likely 
to  be  entirely  lost  by  the  construction  of  a  parallel 
electric  trolley  line  between  the  two  points.  Ar- 
rangements were  therefore  made  for  a  supply  of 
electricity  from  a  station  erected  by  the  road.  A 
third  rail  was  installed  by  this  company  on  its  East- 
bound  track  between  New  Britain  and  Hartford, 
and,  since  May  24,  1897,  an  half-hourly  service  has 
been  offered  the  public  at  a  uniform  rate  of  ten  cents. 
During  the  sixteen  weeks  following  May  24th,  and 
ending  September  i2th,  the  travel  on  the  electric 
road  amounted  to  over  three  hundred  thousand 
instead  of  about  seventy-five  thousand  as  would 
normally  have  been  carried  by  steam.  If  the 
operation  of  the  third  rail  proves  as  satisfactory 


220  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

during  the  winter  as  since  its  installation,  an  exten- 
sion of  the  service  to  Forestville  or  Bristol  would 
seem  to  be  clearly  desirable." 

This  same  report  contains  the  interesting  in- 
formation that  this  road  levies  about  three  times 
as  heavy  a  transport  tax  on  its  local  as  on  its 
through  freight  traffic,  and  it  dwells  with  pathetic 
sadness  on  the  general  depression  in  its  local 
freight  and  passenger  business  which  has  accom- 
panied this  state  of  things.  The  result  of  its  new 
system  of  lower  rates  and  frequent  service  between 
Hartford  and  New  Britain  would  seem  to  suggest 
that  a  similar  system  applied  to  the  rest  of  its  local 
business  would  speedily  remove  this  depression. 

It  should  be  added  that  during  the  summer  the 
ordinary  week-day  business  of  the  Hartford  New 
Britain  third  rail  was  done  with  but  two  trains,  each 
consisting  of  a  single  motor-car  weighing  thirty- 
two  tons,  and  capable  of  seating  ninety- six  passen- 
gers. A  trailer  of  the  same  type  weighs  twenty-five 
tons.  On  rainy  days  a  standard  closed  passenger 
car  was  hauled  as  a  trailer.  On  holidays  and 
Sundays  the  trains  consisted  of  a  rnotor-car  and 
two  trailers,  with  a  seating  capacity  for  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  passengers. 

In  his  address  before  the  American  Street  Rail- 
way Association  at  Niagara  Falls,  October  21, 
1897,  Col.  H.  N.  Heft,  Manager  of  the  Electrical 
Department  of  the  New  Haven  Road,  said:  "  We 
have  learned  very  thoroughly  in  our  street  railway 
experience  the  lesson  of  the  importance  to  any 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  221 

transportation  agency  working  in  a  thickly  popu- 
lated territory  of  UNIFORM  FARES  and  frequent 
service,"  and  he  goes  on  to  show  that  the  experi- 
ence of  his  company  on  its  New  England  Line  had 
been  duplicated  at  Nantasket  Beach.  "  The  fares 
charged  on  the  Nantasket  Beach  Line  before  the 
advent  of  electricity  were  ten  cents  from  Pember- 
ton  to  Nantasket  and  eighteen  cents  from  Nantas- 
ket to  East  Weymouth.  With  electric  traction 
they  have  been  placed  at  a  uniform  rate  of  five 
cents  from  Pemberton  to  Nantasket — seven  stations 
— and  five  cents  from  Nantasket  to  East  Weymouth 
— ten  stations — a  total  of  ten  cents  from  Pember- 
ton to  East  Weymouth.  Under  these  conditions 
the  traffic  has  increased  enormously  on  this  line; 
the  summer  of  1895,  the  first  of  the  electrical  opera- 
tion, showed  an  increase  of  92.6  per  cent,  over  the 
previous  summer  in  the  number  of  passengers  car- 
ried; the  summer  of  1896  showed  45.1  per  cent, 
increase  over  1895,  while  in  the  summer  just 
passed  we  have  carried  nearly  three  times  as  many 
passengers  as  in  the  last  year  of  steam  operation." 
The  cost  of  the  third-rail  construction,  including 
bonding  of  rail,  cable  at  grade  crossings  and  bond- 
ing of  surface  rails,  says  Colonel  Heft,  is  about 
three  thousand  dollars  a  mile.  "  We  do  not  say  that 
the  third  rail  has  no  dangers,  but  we  do  not  con- 
sider the  danger  as  being  at  all  serious,  or  one  that 
should  interfere  with  the  extension  of  the  system." 
The  fuel  used  at  the  power  stations  of  the  New 
Haven  Company  consists  of  "  sparks,"  half-con- 


222  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

sumed  coal  dumped  from  the  extension  fronts  of 
locomotives  at  the  Company's  round-houses.  They 
actually  cost  nothing;  it  used  to  be  an  expense  to 
get  rid  of  them,  but,  estimated  at  a  value  of  seventy 
cents  a  ton,  the  cost  of  power  where  the  engines 
are  used  up  to  their  capacity  is  but  1.8  mills;  less 
than  ^  of  a  cent  per  horse-power  hour.  At  the 
Berlin  station,  where  the  power  is  but  partially 
used,  the  cost,  with  coal  at  $3  per  ton,  was  nine 
mills  per  horse-power  hour;  with  the  use  of  sparks 
it  has  been  reduced  to  three  mills,  T3^  of  a  cent, 
and  Prof.  S.  H.  Short  says  that  "  By  leaving  the 
motor  open  to  the  free  circulation  of  the  air,  it 
would  do  twenty  per  cent,  more  work  for  the  same 
rise  of  temperature." — Electrical  Engineer,  Octo- 
ber 30,  1897. 

An  article  on  "  Third-Rail  Prospects,"  in  the 
New  Haven  Register  of  June  2,  1897,  summed  up 
the  results  of  the  electric  experiments  made  by  the 
New  Haven  Road  as  follows  :  "  It  has  been  found 
possible  to  place  on  the  trunk  of  a  single  car,  with- 
out using  an  inch  of  passenger  space,  a  motor-power 
sufficient  to  propel  at  high  speed  250  tons  weight 
over  a  i  per  cent,  grade  and  round  10  per  cent, 
curves.  This  quality  of  compactness  is  a  most  im- 
portant feature  of  the  electric  system.  The  ability 
to  handle  train-loads  of  any  gross  weight  with  one 
or  more  motor-cars  is  not  now  questioned  by  the 
company.  Electric  trains  can  be  accelerated  more 
rapidly  by  far  than  steam  trains,  this  being  a 
natural  result  of  the  constant  torque  of  the  electric 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


motors,  as  well  as  of  the  immense  reserve  power  at 
the  station  which  can  be  instantly  and  automatically 
placed  at  the  motor  terminals  when  called  for  by 
the  motor-man.  As  a  result  of  this  rapid  accelera- 
tion of  power,  it  is  found  possible  to  make  a  higher 
schedule  speed  over  a  road  of  many  stations  than 
could  possibly  be  done  by  such  locomotives  as  are 
ordinarily  employed  in  this  class  of  traffic.  The 
problem  of  tracking  these  high  speed  trains  has 
been  solved  as  effectively  as  is  done  on  trains  pro- 
pelled by  steam-power  —  this  by  means  of  an  elec- 
tric motor  compressor,  governed  automatically  so 
as  to  constantly  keep  sufficient  pressure  in  the 
tanks  ready  for  service." 

The  electric  train  weighs  full  sixty  tons  less, 
costs  about  $5000  less,  and  requires  two  less  men 
to  run  it  than  does  the  locomotive  train.  The 
New  England  third-rail  electric  covers  324  miles 
every  day.  The  average  American  passenger  loco- 
motive does  not  run  over  300  miles  in  three  days. 

According  to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Report  of 
1895,  there  were  in  use  on  the  railroads  of  the 
United  States  on  the  3oth  of  June,  1895,  in  round 
numbers,  10,000  passenger  trains  averaging  2-J- 
passenger  cars  —  10,000  locomotives,  25,000  cars. 
The  substitution  of  the  electric  motor  for  the  loco- 
motive in  this  business  would  effect  a  saving  in 
capital  of  $50,000,000,  a  saving  in  dead  weight 
hauled  of  600,000  tons  and  a  saving  in  labor  —  two 
shifts  —  of  probably  $5  per  train,  or  $50,000  a  day. 
The  saving  in  the  lighting  of  the  railway  stations 


224  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

would  pay  the  interest  on  the  cost  of  the  power- 
houses. The  saving  in  coal,  and  in  the  wear  and 
tear  of  the  track  would  probably  more  than  meet 
the  interest  on  the  cost  of  the  third  rail  and  other 
electrical  equipment.  On  the  3oth  of  June,  1895, 
the  railroads  of  the  United  States  had  in  use,  in 
round  numbers,  20,000  freight  trains  averaging 
sixty  cars  —  20,000  locomotives  and  1,200,000 
freight  cars.  The  substitution  of  the  electric 
motor  for  the  locomotive  in  the  freight  business 
of  the  country  would  save  in  the  value  of  the  labor 
of  firemen  alone,  probably  $100,000  a  day,  $5  per 
day  per  train. 

Writing  in  the  Electrical  Engineer,  of  June  2, 
1897,  John  C.  Henry  estimates  that  the  substitu- 
tion of  electricity  for  steam  on  the  forty  miles  of 
railroad,  Florence  to  Cripple  Creek,  Col.,  would 
effect  a  saving  of  $228  a  day,  in  addition  to  other 
savings  of  considerable  importance,  but  impossible 
to  figure.  One  third  of  the  power  now  absorbed 
by  the  locomotive  would  be  saved,  and  there  would 
be  a  great  reduction  in  the  wear  and  tear  of  the 
track.  The  electric  plant  could  be  used  in  operat- 
ing the  proposed  Florence  Southern  Road  without 
much  additional  expense,  as  the  current  can  be 
distributed  from  a  central  point  with  much  less 
loss  than  from  the  ends  of  the  line,  and  there  need 
be  no  additional  expense  for  station  attendance. 
The  distribution  system  could  be  amplified  to  great 
advantage  in  furnishing  the  mining  camps  with 
light  and  power.  It  would  require,  comparatively 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  22$ 

speaking,  little  more  outlay  to  deliver  1000  electri- 
cal horse-power  at  the  mines,  which  would  doubt- 
less sell  at  a  very  high  price  when  it  could  be  used 
to  operate  pumps,  hoisters,  etc. 

But  most  wonderful  economies  are  possible  even 
with  the  continued  use  of  the  steam  locomotive. 
Formerly  the  round  trip,  495  miles,  Rock  Island 
to  St.  Louis,  over  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  R.R.,  required 
the  use  of  four  locomotives.  The  entire  run  is  now 
made  every  day  with  one  locomotive,  which  turns 
into  the  company  every  month  14,850  miles  of 
service,  or  about  five  times  that  of  the  average 
passenger  locomotive.  And  this  five-fold  use  of 
locomotive  equipment  is  accompanied  with  a  cor- 
responding economy  in  the  abandonment  of  numer- 
ous round-houses,  with  all  their  attendant  expenses. 
The  estimate  of  C.  Wood  Davis  that  the  ownership 
of  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  by  the  Nation 
would  render  possible  an  annual  reduction  in  our 
transport  taxes  of  $160,000,000  is,  I  believe,  alto- 
gether within  reason. 

The  Connecticut  Railroad  Report  of  1897,  states 
that  from  its  opening,  May  24,  1897,  to  November 
i,  1897,  the  total  of  the  third-rail  traffic  was  414,- 
ooo,  or  an  average  of  2587  per  day.  The  average 
fare  under  the  old  regime,  INCLUDING  COMMUTERS, 
was  eighteen  cents  for  the  trip,  Hartford  to  New 
Britain;  and  the  average  daily  earnings  were 
$135  for  six  days  in  a  week  as  against  $258.70  for 
seven  days  in  a  week  by  the  ten-cent  electrics. 

This  makes  the  weekly  earnings  of  the  old  steam 
15 


226  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

service  $810,  while  that  of  the  electrics  is  $1810.90. 
The  third  rail  is  to  be  immediately  extended  nine 
miles  to  the  west  of  New  Britain,  to  the  town  of 
Bristol,  and  by  the  first  of  April,  1898,  will  proba- 
bly be  in  use  from  Bristol  to  Hartford. 

The  New  Haven  Road  is  also  experimenting 
with  a  combined  car  and  engine  capable  of  carry- 
ing about  sixty  passengers,  and  at  about  one  third 
the  expense  of  the  ordinay  steam  train,  burdened 
with  a  large  amount  of  dead  weight.  On  a  train 
composed  of  drawing-room  and  sleeping-cars  this 
dead  weight  makes  up  ninety-two  per  cent,  of  the 
total  weight  handled. 

The  R.  J?.  Gazette,  of  December  24,  1897,  makes 
the  average  train-loads  of  the  New  England  roads 
to  be  as  follows: 

The  New  York,  New  Haven,  &  Hartford.  73 

The  Boston  &  Albany 70 

The  Boston  &  Maine 59 

New  England 47 

Fitchburg 47 

and  it  goes  on  to  say:  "  It  therefore  appears  that 
the  average  number  of  passengers  carried  in  one 
train  upon  the  best  passenger  roads  in  the  country 
could  be  seated  in  one  of  their  largest  coaches.  If 
the  average  gross  weight  of  the  trains  on  the  New 
England  Road  is  distributed  among  the  average 
load  of  forty-seven  passengers,  the  present  method 
of  locomotion  shows  about  7500  pounds  of  dead 
weight  for  the  accommodation  of  each  passenger. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  22J 

Recent  investigations  show  that  trains  making  325,- 
ooo  miles  a  year  have  averaged  less  than  twenty- 
five  passengers,  and  on  some  trains  the  average  has 
been  as  low  as  six." 

This  being  true  in  the  thickly  settled  East,  we 
may  readily  believe  the  statement  of  the  editor  of 
the  R.  ft.  Review  of  Chicago,  when  he  says:  "  that 
certainly  of  the  lines  west  of  Chicago  and  probably 
(with  one  exception)  of  the  lines  west  of  Buffalo 
and  Pittsburgh,  there  is  not  a  single  road  but  what 
conducts  its  passenger  traffic  at  a  loss. — ''Rail- 
roading Under  Existing  Conditions,"  R.  R.  Re- 
view, December  18,  1897. 

It  should  be  understood,  however,  that  although 
wondrous  economies  are  possible  in  our  railway 
passenger  traffic,  the  real  cause  of  the  present  un- 
profitableness of  the  business  is  not  the  dead  weight 
of  the  passenger  trains  but  the  lack  of  live  weight 
in  the  trains,  and,  as  is  conclusively  proved  by  the 
experience  of  the  New  England  Road,  this  absence 
of  live  weight  is  simply  due  to  the  enormous  trans- 
port taxes  which  make  it  impossible  for  the  masses 
of  the  people  to  use  the  railroad  either  for  business 
or  for  pleasure.  I  would  add  that  this  passenger 
business  is  almost  perfectly  pooled,  and  has  been 
pooled  for  well-nigh  half  a  century. 

The  Engineerng  Magazine,  of  April,  1897,  bears 
witness  that  the  partial  application  of  the  postal 
principle  to  railway  traffic  in  Hungary  has  been  a 
great  success.  "  Instead  of  being  a  source  of  loss, 
as  they  were  before  the  introduction  of  the  zone 


228  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

system,  the  Hungarian  State  Railways  showed  a 
profit  in  1894  of  4.92  per  cent,  on  their  capital." 

The  history  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  affords  a 
most  powerful  argument  in  favor  of  the  lowest 
possible  tax  on  travel.  Opened  to  public  use  in 
September,  1883,  the  bridge  was  crossed  the  first 
year  by  6,179,300  persons  on  foot,  paying  a  toll  of 
one  cent  each;  and  by  5,324,140  car-travellers  at 
five  cents.  The  tolls  remaining  the  same,  the  foot 
traffic  declined  the  next  year  to  3,679,733,  while 
the  car-traffic  increased  to  11,951,630.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1885,  the  tolls  were  reduced — foot-tickets,  in 
packages  of  twenty-five  to  one  fifth  of  a  cent,  and 
car-tickets,  in  packages  of  ten,  to  two  and  a  half 
cents.  The  result  was  an  increase  in  the  total 
traffic  of  the  year  of  seventy-one  per  cent.  The 
lowering  of  the  car-tolls,  however,  made  it  possible 
for  the  weary  earners  of  low  wages  to  ride,  and  the 
foot-traffic  declined  to  3,239,337;  while  the  car- 
traffic  increased  to  21,843,250.  The  car-traffic 
for  1887  was  27,940,313;  for  1888,  30,331,000;  for 
1889,  37,000,000;  for  1890,  40,000,000;  and  in 
1893,  the  number  of  car-travellers  was  42,600,000. 

And  with  the  increase  of  the  traffic  came  a  con- 
current increase  in  receipts  from  $565,544.45  in 
1884-85,  the -last  year  of  high  tolls,  to  $917,961  in 
1888,  with  a  profit  on  the  operations  of  the  year 
sufficient  to  pay  two  thirds  the  interest  on  the 
original  investment.  The  receipts  for  the  year 
1893  were  $1,250,000.  Then  came  the  panic,  and 
the  traffic  fell  off;  the  poor  either  had  no  occasion 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  229 

to  cross  the  bridge  for  work  or  were  unable  to  pay 
the  car-toll  of  two  and  a  half  cents,  which  for  the 
round  trip  meant  an  income  tax  of  five  per  cent, 
on  a  wage  of  $i  a  day.  Foot-travel  on  the  bridge 
is  now  free,  and  two  car-tickets  are  sold  for  five 
cents.  The  World  Almanac  puts  the  number  of 
car-travellers  over  the  bridge  in  1895  at  over 
44,000,000,  1897,  45, 542, 627. ' 

During  the  summer  a  Western  road  runs  excur- 
sions for  $i  the  round  trip  of  174  miles,  and  for 
$1.50  for  another  round  trip  of  346  miles.  The 
weekly  excursion,  says  a  Chicago  friend,  has  grown 
to  be  an  immense  business,  and  it  would  be  much 
larger  were  it  not  for  the  niggardly  policy  which 
confines  it  to  one  day  in  the  week. 

According  to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Report  of 
1895,  the  value  of  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States  on  the  3oth  of  June  of  that  year  was  $10,- 
963,584,385,  and  the  number  of  railway  employees 
was  785,034.  Each  of  the  30,000  railway  trains  of 
the  country — 10,000  passenger,  20,000  freight 
trains — represents,  therefore,  an  average  investment 
of  about  $365,000.  C.  S.  Walker,  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural  College,  writing  in  the  Yale 
Review,  of  May,  1897,  says  that  "  the  pay  of  the 
average  farmer  for  his  labor  of  superintendence 
and  manual  toil  is  a  dollar  a  day."  The  invest- 
ment represented  by  the  average  passenger  train  of 
the  country  is,  therefore,  equal  to  the  year's  labor 
of  1000  Massachusetts  farmers,  and  it  requires  the 

1  David  A.  Wells,  Recent  Economic  Changes,  page  386. 


230  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

constant  care  of  twenty-six  men  to  keep  it  in  opera- 
tion and  to  maintain  its  share  of  tracks,  stations, 
round-houses,  repair  shops,  etc.,  in  order.  This 
average  passenger  train  weighs  hardly  less  than  160 
tons,  and,  on  such  roads  as  the  New  York  Central, 
it  weighs  fully  200  tons;  it  has  a  seating  capacity 
for  160  persons;  each  seat  therefore  represents  a 
full  ton  in  weight;  the  train  is  hauled  by  a  tireless 
iron  horse,  easily  capable  of  hauling  a  train-load  of 
500  persons  300  miles  a  day;  it  ought  to  make  500 
miles  a  day. 

Now,  is  there  not  something  most  absurd  in  a 
policy  that  permits  such  trains  to  crawl  over  the 
country  at  a  rate  of  less  than  one  hundred  miles  a 
day  and  with  less  than  forty  persons  in  a  train,  and, 
on  many  roads,  with  not  over  ten  persons  in  a 
sixty-four-seated  car  ?  If  I  am  not  very  much 
mistaken  a  railroad  magnate  had  a  whole  car  to 
himself  the  other  day  when  he  came  to  this  town 
of  Farmington.  I  wonder  how  much  he  paid  for 
the  use  of  that  car.  Persons  of  importance  to  the 
railroads,  we  have  been  told  by  the  Boston  & 
Maine  officers,  usually  travel  free. 

The  Massachusetts  farmer  works  twenty-one 
days  in  a  year  to  pay  his  share  of  the  customs 
tariffs  levied  by  the  National  Government.  Com- 
missioner Blanchard  says  that  the  United  Railway 
Government,  which  he  represents,  takes  three  times 
as  much  out  of  the  farmer.  In  other  words,  the 
average  farmer,  the  average  worker,  gives  sixty- 
three  days  of  his  labor  every  year  for  the  support 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2$  I 

of  this  Railway  Government.  Does  he  receive  a 
fair  return  for  his  service  ?  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  grumbling  nowadays  about  the  pension  tax. 
Are  we  not  paying  rather  heavy  pensions  to  these 
railway  men  ?  Is  there  not  something  a  wee  bit 
stupid  in  allowing  these  private  individuals  to 
regulate  the  movements  of  the  public  on  the  public 
highways  and  at  so  much  a  mile  ? 

The  system  is  not  even  profitable.  The  revenue 
from  the  passenger  traffic  of  this  country,  under 
this  policy  of  not  allowing  the  laborer  to  earn  his 
living  in  one  town  and  to  have  his  home  in  another, 
hardly  meets  the  cost  of  running  the  passenger 
trains.  A  year's  experience  has  taught  Manager 
Ainslie,  of  the  Blue  Island  Line,  of  the  Chicago  & 
Northern  Pacific  Road,  that  there  is  more  money 
in  a  uniform  five-cent  fare  than  in  a  three-cent-a- 
mile  fare.  A  similar  experience  will  surely  follow 
the  management  of  the  National  Highways  by  the 
National  Government  on  the  cost  of  the  service 
principle  of  taxation.  Not  every  line  will  pay,  but 
the  aggregate  of  the  receipts  of  the  entire  railway 
system,  under  the  proposed  scheme,  will,  we  are 
assured,  far  more  than  furnish  the  needed  revenues. 

The  number  of  passenger  locomotives  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States  decreased  from  9999 
in  1895  to  9943  in  1896.  There  was  also  a  slight 
decrease  in  car  equipment.  The  number  of  pas- 
senger trips  in  1896  was  511,772,737,  about  4,000,- 
ooo  more  than  in  1895  and  about  33,000,000  less 
than  in  1894.  The  revenue  from  passengers  in 


232  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

1896  was  $266,562,533.  Continuing  the  estimate 
of  the  passenger  equipment  at  10,000  trains  of  2J 
cars,  the  average  service  of  each  train  would  be 
51,177  passengers,  and  the  average  passenger  reve- 
nue $26,656.25.  The  actual  number  of  persons 
carried  by  the  average  train  was  51,471,  and  its 
actual  earnings  were  about  $26,800  (/.  C.  Report^ 
page  79,  1897). 

During  the  first  five  months  of  their  service,  each 
of  the  two  Hartford-New  Britain  electric — usually 
one-car — trains  averaged  1293^  passengers  and 
$129.35  passenger  revenue  per  day.  At  this  rate 
each  of  these  trains  will  serve,  in  the  course  of  the 
year,  472,127  passengers,  and  will  earn  from  this 
service  $47,212.70.  Performing  a  similar  service, 
our  10,000  passenger  trains  would  serve  4,721,270,- 
ooo  passengers,  and  would  earn  from  this  service 
$472,127,000  a  year. 

These  figures  represent,  however,  only  the  num- 
ber of  travellers  whom  the  experience  of  the  New 
England  Road  proves  to  be  able  to  pay  ten  cents 
for  single  trips  or  five  cents  each  way  for  round 
trips  to  and  from  their  jobs  and  their  homes.  We 
may  fairly  estimate  that  the  511,772,737  persons 
who  took  fifty-cent  single  trips  in  1896,  would  take 
at  least  as  many  fifty-cent  round  trips  by  the  Ex- 
press Post  of  my  scheme.  It  seems  also  reasonable 
to  believe  that  the  stimulus  offered  to  long-distance 
travel  by  our  uniform  fares  of  one  dollar  for  any 
length  of  trip  by  ordinary  cars  on  the  fastest  trains 
in  the  world,  would  call  out  half  as  many  such 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  233 

travellers  as  there  were  fifty-cent  travellers  in  1896. 
If  these  estimates  proved  correct,  the  results  of  the 
application  of  my  scheme  to  the  ordinary  passenger 
traffic  of  the  country  would  be  as  follows— (one 
ten-cent  trip  equals  two  of  five  cents  ;  one  fifty- 
cent  trip  two  of  twenty-five  cents)  : 

SINGLE  PASSENGER  TRIPS.  RECEIPTS. 

9,442,540,000    at         scents $472,127,000 

1,023,545,474    at       25     "   $255,886,368.50 

255,886,368^  at  $1.00          $255,886,368.50 


10,721,971,842^  $983,899,737 

Average  tax  less  than  ten  cents  per  passenger. 
Add  to  these  figures  the  income  from  parlor-  and 
sleeping-car  travel,  from  the  transport  of  baggage, 
of  the  mails,  and  of  express  matter,  and  the  total 
earnings  from  our  passenger  equipment  under  the 
management  of  the  Post-office  could  not  be  less 
than  $1,100,000,000  annually.  And  to  handle  this 
enormous  passenger  traffic  with  our  present  car 
equipment,  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  get  as 
much  service  out  of  the  average  car  as  the  New 
England  Road  got  out  of  its  electric-motor  cars 
during  the  period  May  24  to  Nov.  i,  1897.  If  each 
of  our  25,000  passenger  cars  averaged  but  430,000 
passengers  a  year,  the  total  would  be  10,750,000,000. 

H.  G.  Prout,  comparing  English  and  American 
Railways,  in  Scribner 's  Magazine  for  October,  1894, 
says  that  the  Englishman's  advantage  over  his 
American  brother  as  to  safety  of  railway  travel  is 


234  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

as  sixteen  to  one.  The  Englishman,  moreover, 
pays  a  much  lower  transport  tax  than  does  the 
American.  In  the  United  States,  the  minimum 
regular  fare  is  two  cents  a  mile,  and  the  short- 
distance  passengers,  who  make  up  the  bulk  of  the 
travel,  pay  more.  In  England  the  uniform  third- 
class  tax  is  two  cents,  and  excursion  rates  bring 
down  this  tax  in  many  cases  to  .67  of  a  cent  a  mile. 

From  New  York  to  Boston  the  fare  is $5-°° 

The  English  rate  would  be $4.26 

New  York  to  Albany $3. 10 

English  rate,  the  same  distance  . .  $2.46 
New  York  to  Philadelphia $2.50 

English  rate $1.84 

Chicago  to  Milwaukee $2«55 

English  rate $I-7° 

And  Mr.  Prout  quotes  Carroll  D.  Wright  to  the 
effect  that  the  English  workman,  with  no  tariff  to 
hinder  his  trade  with  the  outside  world  and  with 
these  lower  railway  tariffs,  is  able  to  allow  his 
family  $23.55  a  year  to  spend  in  amusements  and 
vacations,  while  the  family  of  the  American  work- 
man, closely  confined  to  his  Home  Market  by 
custom's  tariffs  and  high  railway  tariffs,  can  afford 
to  expend  but  $14.48  a  year  upon  similar  pleasures. 

Fortunate,  however,  as  the  Englishman  may  be 
in  these  respects,  the  London  County  Council  re- 
ported, in  1893,  that  the  railway  tariffs  levied  upon 
the  London  workingman  were,  on  an  average,  78  per 
cent,  higher  than  the  tariffs  imposed  by  the  state  rail- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


ways  upon  the  workingmen  of  the  Continent,  and  the 
report  went  on  to  say:  "It  is  difficult  to  conceive 
on  what  possible  plea  the  legitimate  demand  for  a 
more  equitable  adjustment  of  these  charges  can  be 
resisted.  However  the  question  may  be  viewed, 
the  reasons  which  plead  for  this  much  needed  con- 
cession, whether  moral,  social,  or  economical,  are 
irresistible;  and  even  the  narrow,  selfish  interests 
of  the  shareholders  may  be  forcibly  appealed  to  in 
favor  of  it.  If  a  workman's  train  has  to  be  run,  it 
makes  no  difference  to  the  company  whether  a 
workman  enters  it  at  starting  or  near  the  end  of 
the  journey;  where  he  enters  it,  in  no  way  affects 
the  expense  of  running  the  train.  Therefore  any 
reduction  in  fares  which  induces  large  numbers  of 
workmen  to  reside  eight,  ten,  or  more  miles  from 
their  work  instead  of  close  to  it,  would,  notwith- 
standing a  general  reduction  in  rates  and  inde- 
pendently of  the  increased  numbers  that  might  be 
induced  to  use  the  line,  return  more  revenue  for 
the  longer  distance,  at  the  reduced  rate,  than  for 
the  shorter  ones,  at  the  present  high  rates,  and  the 
difference  would  be  all  profit,  accompanied  by  the 
advantage  of  greater  convenience  in  conducting 
the  traffic  through  the  distribution  of  the  passengers 
over  many  places  instead  of  being  concentrated  in 
almost  unmanageable  numbers  in  a  few." 

In  behalf  of  the  proposition  that  the  way  traffic, 
the  short-distance  traffic  of  a  railway,  will  always 
make  up  the  bulk  of  its  business,  the  report  of  the 
New  York  Central  Road  for  1897  affords  valuable 


236  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

testimony.  The  short-distance  travel  on  that  great 
through  road,  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1897, 
was  seven  times  its  through  traffic.  The  number 
of  travellers  between  New  York  and  Buffalo  only 
averaged  278  daily;  they  could  be  comfortably 
seated  in  one  train.  The  proportion  of  through 
journeys  to  way  journeys  was  but  as  i  to  114;  the 
average  passenger  trip  was  a  little  less  than  thirty 
miles. 

As  to  the  wasteful  use  of  passenger  equipment 
under  a  policy,  that  would  prevent  a  man  who  lives 
in  one  town  from  finding  employment  in  another, 
most  interesting  evidence  can  be  obtained  from 
many  of  the  railroad  reports  of  1897.  Thus  the 
Erie  trains  ran  with  an  average  of  less  than  ten 
passengers  in  a  car  and  less  than  forty-six  passen- 
gers in  a  train ;  less  than  one  sixth  of  the  seats  in 
the  average  car  were  occupied,  and  the  average 
train-load  was  less  than  one  tenth  the  capacity  of 
its  locomotive.  The  Louisville  &  Nashville  hauled 
average  trains  of  5.11  cars,  with  less  than  ten  pas- 
sengers in  a  car.  The  locomotives  of  the  Wabash 
Road  hauled  behind  them  average  trains  of  4.55 
cars  with  less  than  nine  persons  in  a  car.  The 
six-car  trains  of  the  Oregon  Railroad  and  Naviga- 
tion Co.  carried  less  than  sixty  persons;  out  of  over 
300  seats,  240  had  no  occupants.  The  Minne- 
apolis &  St.  Louis  Road  averaged  but  32.72  pas- 
sengers on  a  train  of  4.22  cars,  with  seats  for  at 
least  200,  etc. 

The  following  brief  table  taken  from  the  sum- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


237 


mary  of  operating  expenses  and  fixed  charges  of 
the  Interstate  Report  of  1893,  affords  a  graphic  illus- 
tration of  the  relation  of  the  passenger  train-load 
to  the  cost  of  the  service  rendered  the  individual 
passenger. 


NAME  OF  ROAD. 

Cost  per 
Train- 
mile. 

Cost  per 
Passenger- 
mile. 

Average 
Number  of 
Passengers 
per  train. 

Genesee  &  Wyoming  Valley 
New  York,  New  Haven,  & 
Hartford 

Cents. 
95-24 

08 

Cents. 
°7i 

I    ^O5 

about  i£ 
7«r 

Florida  Southern        .      ... 

08  * 

6  2<; 

16 

Chicago,      Burlington,      & 

06. 

2.1^0 

47 

Canadian   Pacific        

QC 

1.88 

to 

Union  Pacific        

Q4. 

2.08 

45 

Charleston,    Cincinnati,    & 
Chicago            .  . 

08. 

6.  07 

1C 

Savannah,  Florida,  &  West- 

08.3 

3-5 

28 

The  cost  of  the  operation  of  the  average  pas- 
senger train,  including  its  share  of  fixed  charges,  is 
practically  the  same  on  each  of  these  eight  lines, 
but  the  cost — to  the  road — of  the  transportation  of 
the  individual  traveller  on  the  little  way  road,  the 
Genesee  &  Wyoming  Valley,  is  fifty  times,  on  the 
C.,  C.,  &  C.  and  the  Florida  Southern,  five  times, 
on  the  Savannah,  Florida,  &  Western,  nearly  three 
times,  and  on  the  C.,  B.,  &  Q.  and  the  Union  Pa- 
cific about  sixty  per  cent,  more  than  that  on  the  New 
Haven  Road.  It  actually  costs  more  to  transport 


238  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  Genesee  traveller  over  the  five  and  a  half  miles 
of  his  road  than  to  transport  the  New  Haven's 
traveller  over  the  232  miles  of  its  main  line  New 
York  to  Boston.  Why  this  difference  ?  Simply 
that  the  one  train  is  run  for  the  benefit  of  one  man 
and  an  occasional  friend  while  the  other  serves 
seventy-five  persons.  The  cost  to  the  New  Haven 
would  remain  practically  the  same  if  its  train-loads 
consisted  of  200  passengers  making  average  trips 
of  ten  miles  instead  of  seventy-five  passengers 
averaging  trips  of  between  eighteen  and  nineteen 
miles.  In  the  former  case,  however,  the  cost  of 
the  service  rendered  the  single  traveller  would  be 
less  than  five  cents,  and  the  cost  would  be  the 
same  wherever  the  passenger  took  the  train  and 
wherever  he  left  it.  Make  the  fares  five  cents  per 
trip  on  ordinary  trains,  and  the  train-loads  of  the 
country  will  average  two  hundred  passengers. 

LETTER  AND  PARCEL  RATES. 

The  practicability  of  a  one-cent  letter  rate  has 
long  been  acknowledged.  In  his  report  of  1896, 
Postmaster-General  Wilson  says:  "It  is  CERTAIN 
that  a  one-cent  letter  rate,  the  cheapest  postage  in 
the  world,  would  yield  a  large  profit,"  and  he  adds 
that  the  only  thing  which  prevents  the  adoption  of 
this  profit-bringing-one-cent-an-ounce  letter  rate  is 
the  deficit-causing-one-cent-a-poundrateon  second- 
class  matter.  Mr.  Wilson  was  altogether  wrong, 
however,  as  to  the  cause  of  the  annual  eight  to  ten 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  239 

million  dollars  deficiency  in  the  business  of  the 
Post-office.  It  is  not  due  to  the  one-cent  tax 
levied  by  the  Government  upon  publishers  and 
newsdealers  for  the  transport  of  newspapers  and 
paper-covered  books,  but  to  the  eight-cents-a- 
pound  tax  levied  upon  the  Government  by  the 
railroad  for  the  transport  of  United  States  Mail- 
bags. 

The  situation  was  well  stated  by  Senator  Gorman 
of  Maryland,  in  his  speech  on  "  Railway  Mail 
Compensation,"  in  February,  1897,  when  he  said: 
"  The  fact  is,  Mr.  President,  that  the  great  power 
of  these  corporations  who  control  everything,  who 
are  powerful  enough  to  make  and  unmake  public 
men,  is  so  omnipotent  that  no  executive  officer  has 
been  found  in  the  last  twelve  years,  except  in  the 
single  case  of  Postmaster-General  Vilas,  who  has 
attempted  to  reduce  the  compensation  for  mail 
transportation,  and  within  six  months  after  he  had 
left  the  Department,  every  economy  which  he  in- 
troduced had  been  wiped  away,  and  the  companies 
received  not  only  what  they  had  received  before, 
but  their  compensation  was  increased,  and  never 
during  his  long  service  in  this  body," — the  United 
States  Senate — said  the  honorable  Senator,  "  ex- 
cept in  this  one  instance,  did  he  know  of  a  Post- 
master-General who  had  made  bona  fide  effort  to 
control  this  railroad  extortion  which  everyone 
knows  to  exist." 

The  attitude  of  the  railroads  toward  the  Govern- 
ment was  also  very  clearly  set  forth  when  Manager 


240  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

McBee  of  the  Seaboard  Air  Line,  being  caught  in 
the  act  of  stuffing  the  mails — or  his  agents  being 
caught — during  the  quadriennial  weighings,  ex- 
cused himself  and  his  agents  with  the  plea  that 
there  was  no  law  against  it,  and,  in  any  case,  his 
Line  was  only  following  methods  common  to  all 
the  railroads. — Congressional  Record,  February  24, 
1897,  page  2308. 

But  we  have  still  further  testimony  against  the 
position  that  the  annual  postal  deficit  is  due  to  the 
low  rate  on  Second-Class  matter.  In  his  report  of 
1889,  Postmaster-General  Wanamaker  makes  the 
average  carriage  of  a  piece  of  postal  matter  442 
miles.  10.4  per  cent,  of  the  mails  is  carried  but  25 
miles;  24.7  per  cent,  travels  125  miles;  24.4  per 
cent,  goes,  on  an  average,  350  miles;  23.3  per  cent, 
is  carried  750  miles;  and  but  17.1  per  cent,  of  the 
weight  of  the  mails  is  carried,  on  an  average,  1500 
miles.  Nearly  60  per  cent,  of  our  mail-bags  travel 
within  zones  of  350  miles,  and  the  proportion  of 
short-distance  postal  exchanges  would  undoubtedly 
be  much  greater  were  not  the  Government  under- 
bid by  the  express  companies. 

"  Within  a  radius  (within  zones)  of  500  miles," 
said  Mr.  Loud,  House  Chairman  of  the  Post-office 
Committee  of  the  Fiftyfourth  Congress,  "  the  ex- 
press companies  to-day  are  carrying  the  matter — 
second-class  matter — (domicil  to  domicil)  for  a 
fraction  under  one  cent  a  pound.  Beyond  a  radius 
of  500  miles  they  dump  it  on  the  United  States 
Government  for  transportation." 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  24! 

If  there  be  further  need  of  illustration  of  railway 
discriminations  in  favor  of  private  express  com- 
panies and  against  the  Post-office,  the  following 
case  may  be  of  interest.  The  Mississippi  Valley 
Medical  Association  met  at  Louisville,  Kentucky, 
October  4-8,  1897.  On  that  occasion  a  special 
label  was  issued  marked  "  Magazines  Prepaid, 
Special  Second-Class  Matter,  One  Cent  a  Pound," 
and  on  magazines — paper-covered  books  bearing 
this  label,  the  rate  by  express  was  but  one  cent  a 
pound  from  all  points  west  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Ohio  and  East  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  including 
Denver  to  Louisville.  Reckoning  this  business 
done  on  the  basis  of  the  contract  made  between 
the  Adams  Express  Company  and  the  New  Eng- 
land Road,  of  July,  1897 — forty  per  cent,  of  the 
gross  earnings  of  the  express  company  to  go  to  the 
railroad — this  second-class  matter  was  carried  by 
the  railroads  for  the  express  companies  for  ^  of  a 
cent  a  pound. — See  Report  of  New  England  Road, 
October  28,  1897,  page  12. 

Taking,  then,  442  miles,  about  the  distance  from 
New  York  to  Buffalo,  as  the  average  haul  of  a  mail- 
bag  (the  average  haul  of  a  postal-car  in  1894  was  but 
170  miles),  we  find  that  the  railroads  tax  the  Gov- 
ernment $160  a  ton  for  a  haul  that,  in  the  days 
before  the  building  of  the  Erie  Canal,  cost  private 
individuals,  by  ox-team  and  sailing  vessel,  but 
$100,  while  they  carry  second-class  matter,  dis- 
tances up  to  1000  miles  or  more,  on  occasion  for 
express  companies,  for  $8  a  ton.  We  may  safely 

16 


242  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

say,  I  think,  that  railroads  do  not  make  contracts 
to  carry  express  matter  for  less  than  the  cost  of  the 
service  rendered.  And  since  they  charge  the  ex- 
press companies  but  $8  for  carrying  second-class 
matter  while  they  charge  the  Government  $160  for 
carrying  all  classes  of  mail  matter,  it  therefore 
follows  that  the  railroads  tax  the  Government 
twenty  times  the  cost  of  the  service  rendered  the 
Government  in  the  transportation  of  its  mail-bags. 
Government  management  of  the  railroads,  we  may 
safely  conclude,  would  save  to  the  people  full 
twenty  million  dollars  a  year  in  mail  transporta- 
tion. 

Is  further  evidence  needed  to  confirm  this 
statement  ?  Then  please  note  the  following:  The 
records  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
show  that  the  Texas  Pacific  and  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroads  carry  foreign  hats  and  caps,  boots 
and  shoes,  cashmeres  and  laces,  cutlery  and  ordin- 
ary hardware,  from  New  Orleans  to  San  Francisco, 
for  -fa  of  a  cent  a  pound,  and  the  business  has 
proved  so  profitable  that,  after  years  of  litigation, 
these  roads  have  at  last  secured  from  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  a  decree  allowing  them 
to  continue  these  rates  on  these  foreign  goods,  while 
they  are  at  the  same  time  permitted  by  the  Court 
to  charge  three  or  four  times  as  much  for  a  similar 
service  rendered  to  native  goods  of  a  similar  de- 
scription. 

If  it  is  a  profitable  business  for  these  railroads  to 
carry  these  foreign  goods  across  the  Continent  for 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  243 

T87  of  a  cent  a  pound,  is  it  not  certain  that,  under 
the  Government  management  of  the  railroads,  the 
cost  of  the  service  of  transporting  Government 
mail-bags,  average  hauls  of  442  miles,  would  be  as 
low  as  T\  of  a  cent  a  pound  ? 

Again,  the  regular  rate  of  the  Adams  Express 
Company,  New  York  to  New  Haven,  on  forty- 
pound  packages,  is  but  one  cent  a  pound,  on 
seventy-five  pound  parcels,  f  of  a  cent  a  pound, 
and  on  one-hundred  pound  parcels,  but  \  a  cent 
a  pound.  The  rate  per  hundred,  New  York  to 
Boston,  is  but  one  cent  a  pound — T4<j  of  a  cent  a 
pound  to  the  railroad  ?  to  Philadelphia,  f  of  a  cent; 
to  Cleveland,  if  cents  ;  to  Cincinnati,  two  cents. 
From  New  York  to  Elizabeth,  Newark,  Rahway, 
and  several  other  places  in  New  Jersey,  the  rate 
per  hundred  is  but  ^  of  a  cent  a  pound,  while 
from  New  York  to  Jersey  City  it  is  but  twenty- 
five  cents.  If  the  railroads  get  but  forty  per 
cent,  of  the  tax  on  this  T4o  of  a  cent  a  pound 
express  matter  sent  from  New  York  to  these 
New  Jersey  towns,  then  their  share  of  the  re- 
ceipts is  but  but  \  of  a  cent  a  pound.  The 
census  of  1880  had  a  very  interesting  note  on 
the  express  companies  of  the  United  States.  It 
is  found  in  Vol.  IV.,  page  855,  and  it  is  to 
this  effect  :  '  The  express  companies  of  the 
United  States  are  but  joint  partnerships,  and  pay 
taxes  neither  on  their  capital  stock  nor  on  their 
business  ;  their  officers  are  perpetual,  and  not 
affected  by  any  election  through  stockholders,  it 


244  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

not  even  being  the  custom  to  call  stockholders' 
meetings."  It  would  seem  that,  already  seventeen 
years  ago,  these  associations  had  attained  to  the 
position  of  the  despotic  governments  of  the  Orient. 
They  were  responsible  to  no  one.  Their  business 
was  that  of  collecting  transport  taxes,  and  those 
taxes  were  levied  at  their  free  wills.  Their  Gov- 
ernment was  perpetual,  and  we  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  their  ancient  status  continues,  for  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  decided  as  long 
ago  as  December  28,  1887,  that  these  companies 
were  forgotten  by  the  legislators  who  drew  up  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Act. 

But  to  continue  our  argument.  Up  to  the  spring 
of  1897,  the  milk  rates  on  the  railroads  supplying 
New  York  City  from  the  West  of  the  Hudson  had, 
for  many  years,  been  uniform  within  zones  con- 
stantly widening,  and  finally  extending  up  to  396 
miles.  These  rates — 32  cents  for  40  quarts  of 
milk,  fifty  cents  for  40  quarts  of  cream — were  the 
same  whether  the  product  was  carried  in  cans  or  in 
bottles.  A  4<D-quart  can  filled  weighs,  however, 
only  about  TOO  pounds,  while  the  same  amount  of 
milk  or  cream  carried  in  bottles,  crated,  weighs 
about  220  pounds.  Figured  in  pounds,  the  rail- 
road rates  were,  therefore,  £  a  cent  a  pound  on 
cans  of  cream  and  less  than  -J  of  a  cent  a  pound  on 
cans  of  milk;  on  bottled  cream,  the  transport  tax 
was  less  than  \  of  a  cent  a  pound,  and  on  bottled 
milk  less  than  %  of  a  cent  a  pound.  This  milk  and 
cream,  moreover,  was  carried  on  trains  making 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


245 


passenger  time,  and  these  rates  included  the  return 
of  the  empty  cans  and  bottles.  In  his  brief  in  the 
Milk  Case,  tried  before  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  in  the  winter  of  1895-96,  Joseph  H. 
Choate  proved  that  the  profits  of  this  business  were 
from  200  to  300  per  cent.  The  average  milk  car, 
on  the  Erie  Road,  made  net  earnings  of  over  $10,- 
ooo  a  year.  On  the  D  ,  L.,  &  W.,  the  profits  were 
so  great  that  the  managers  of  the  road  paid  their 
Milk  Contractor,  Westcott,  a  clear  salary  of  over 
$50,000  a  year  for  his  valuable  services. 

Note  also  the  following  advertisement  of  Express 
Service,  Door  to  Door,  New  York  to  London, 
lately  issued  by  Messrs  Davies,  Turner  &  Co.,  of 
27  State  Street,  New  York. 

NEW  YORK  TO    LONDON. 

Via  Southampton,  American  Line  of  Steamers,  Sailing 
Wednesdays. 


2lbs. 

5lbs. 

lolbs. 

25  Ibs. 

50  Ibs. 

100  Ibs. 

$i  for  each  ad- 

ditional 100  Ibs. 

25  cts. 

35  cts. 

50  cts. 

$1.00 

$1.50 

$2.25 

(i  cent  per  Ib.) 

and  the  following,   by  C.  B.   Richard  &  Co.,  61 
Broadway,  New  York: 

GREAT   REDUCTION    IN   EXPRESS   RATES  TO  LONDON 
Via  American  Line,  every  Wednesday. 

LONDON    DELIVERED. 


2  Ibs. 

5  Ibs. 

10  Ibs. 

25  Ibs. 

50  Ibs 

100  Ibs. 

$i  for  each  ad- 

ditional 100  Ibs. 

25  cts. 

35  cts. 

45  cts. 

go  cts. 

$1.40 

$2.35 

(i  cent  per  Ib.) 

246 


A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 


and  this  concern  carries  packages  to  any  place  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  at  the  following  rates: 


i  Ib. 

2lbs. 

5lbs. 

10  Ibs. 

40  Ibs. 

zoo  Ibs. 

$1.90  for  each 

additional 

45  cts. 

55  cts. 

65  cts. 

80  cts. 

$2.00 

$3.60 

100  Ibs. 

I  also  recall  the  fact  that,  within  the  limits  of  the 
German  Empire,  the  postal  rates  on  parcels  up  to 
eleven  pounds  in  weight,  domicil  to  domicil,  are 
but  6^  cents  for  distances  up  to  10  miles,  and  but 
12^  cents  for  greater  distances. 

I  have  told  elsewhere  (page  97)  of  the  parcels 
post  experiment,  commenced  by  the  Great  Eastern 
Railroad  of  England  less  than  two  years  ago.  At 
the  half-yearly  meeting  of  the  company,  in  July, 
1896,  the  manager,  Lord  Claude  Hamilton,  an- 
nounced that  the  scheme  was  already  a  success. 
"  The  [London]  householder  sends  his  order  to 
such  farmer  as  he  may  choose  for  butter,  eggs, 
poultry,  vegetables,  and  farm  produce  generally. 
The  farmer  fills  the  order,  packing  the  box — fur- 
nished by  the  company  at  cost — himself,  and  hand- 
ing it  over  to  the  company  for  delivery.  [A  box 
10  inches  by  7^,  and  three  inches  deep,  costs  3 
cents;  the  largest  box  used,  a  very  capacious 
article,  costs  but  ten  cents.]  There  is  a  uniform 
charge  of  EIGHT  CENTS  FOR  TWENTY  POUNDS,  IRRE- 
SPECTIVE OF  DISTANCE.  The  limit  of  weight  allowed 
is  60  pounds,  and  the  company  will  take  a  parcel 
of  this  weight  from  any  point  on  its  lines  to  Lon- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  247 

don  for  24  cents,  and  deliver  the  parcel  in  its  own 
wagons  without  further  charge  anywhere  within 
three  miles  of  its  central  station. 

The  consignments  are  carried  by  express  trains, 
and  are  usually  delivered  on  the  day  of  transmis- 
sion. Not  only  does  the  consumer  get  fresh 
garden  products  at  a  minimum  price,  he  also  saves 
the  middleman's  London  charges.  The  wholesale 
and  retail  men  are  eliminated.  One  of  the  leading 
officials  of  the  company  says  of  the  scheme:  "  We 
have  a  tremendous  residential  population  along  the 
London  end  of  our  line,  and  this  scheme  was 
largely  devised  in  its  interest,  and  in  the  interest 
of  the  farmer  as  well,  I  may  say.  The  farmer  gets 
better  terms  for  his  product,  while  the  reduction  in 
cost  to  the  public  is  very  considerable.  When  our 
scheme  is  more  widely  known,  it  will,  I  believe, 
contribute  largely  to  revive  farming  in  the  eastern 
counties.  Our  list  of  farmers,  who  have  engaged 
to  supply  the  London  consumer,  ranges  over  Cam- 
bridgeshire, Essex,  Hertfordshire,  Huntingdon- 
shire, Norfolk,  and  Suffolk,  and  we  bring  parcels 
of  fish  from  Lowestoft  and  Yarmouth  to  London  at 
much  the  same  rates.  The  Londoner  is  already 
taking  very  kindly  to  the  scheme.  I  have  evidence 
that  it  has  saved  money  to  many  an  anxious,  over- 
burdened London  householder,  who  by  its  means 
gets  his  larder  stocked  with  necessaries  at  far 
cheaper  rates  than  if  he  dealt  with  the  London 
markets  and  shops.  The  one  thing  necessary  is 
that  the  scheme  should  be  more  widely  known. 


248  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

The  farmers  sell  their  produce  at  prices  which 
would  open  the  eyes  of  the  average  housekeeper, 
and  cheaply  as  the  farmers  do  it,  they  reap,  never- 
theless, a  substantial  profit,  and  there  is  absolutely 
no  trouble  attending  the  matter;  it  is  easier  for  a 
housewife  to  send  her  order  down  to  Essex  or  Nor- 
folk than  to  go  and  buy  at  the  stores  at  the  nearest 
market.  The  farmers  despatch  promptly,  and  what 
with  our  express  trains  and  swift  vans,  the  produce 
is  at  the  housewife's  door  in  a  few  hours.  I  may 
say  that  the  traffic  is  not  particularly  remunerative 
at  present,  nor  do  I  think  that — -per  se — it  will  ever 
be  a  highly  paying  traffic,  but  it  will  pay  indirectly 
by  giving  vast  encouragement  to  dairy  farming,  and 
by  spreading  great  prosperity  throughout  the  dis- 
trict which  the  Great  Eastern  serves." — Report  U. 
S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  1896;  page  97,  "A 
General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post." 

The  R.  R.  Gazette  of  New  York,  of  October  12, 
1897,  quotes  W.  M.  Acworth  as  saying  that  in  1896 
no  less  than  60,000  packages  of  agricultural  pro- 
duce were  handled  by  the  Great  Eastern  Post,  and 
that  whereas  in  the  first  two  months  of  1896  the 
Great  Eastern  handled  but  3000  of  these  packages, 
in  the  two  corresponding  months  of  1897  the  num- 
ber was  12,000.  It  is  reported  that  the  Scotch 
roads  are  about  to  reduce  their  agricultural  rates 
one  half. 

Contrast  the  broad,  liberal  policy  of  this  Old 
England  Railway  with  the  narrow,  petty  policy  of 
the  .  .  .,  that  "  Grasping  Corporation  "  which 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  249 

holds  in  its  Pool  practically  all  New  England.  The 
Royal  Ruler  of  the  New  England  Highway  charges 
10  cents  for  the  care  of  the  smallest  parcel  at  his 
tax-collector's  stations,  and  this  even  if  the  parcel 
remains  in  his  care  but  ten  minutes.  Note,  too, 
his  tax  on  suburban  parcels:  to  stations  within  dis- 
tances of  17  miles,  on  parcels  up  to  25  pounds  in 
weight,  15  cents;  on  the  same  parcels  to  stations 
17  to  26  miles  distant,  20  cents;  and  to  stations 
above  26  and  under  34  miles,  25  cents;  double  and 
triple  the  transport  taxes  levied  by  the  Great 
Eastern  Railroad  for  a  much  greater  service.  It 
even  charges  a  tax  of  i  cent  on  all  newspapers  sold 
in  its  stations  or  on  its  trains. 

This  proposed  Bill  will  take  from  our  Railway 
Kings  their  present  power  of  holding  up  the  travel- 
ler and  confiscating  his  produce,  and  will  secure  to 
our  people  a  prosperity  as  much  greater  than  that 
promised  by  the  Great  Eastern  Railway  of  England 
to  its  patrons,  as  is  the  territory  which  the  Bill 
covers  and  the  population  it  proposes  to  serve. 

Harper's  Weekly,  of  August  21,  1897,  reports 
that  the  recent  experiments  in  the  free  delivery  of 
rural  mail  matter  have  resulted  very  much  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Post-office  Department.  The 
farmers  are  especially  pleased  with  the  new  service. 
"  It  is  found  that  they  take  many  more  newspapers 
when  they  can  have  them  delivered,  and  also  that 
the  number  of  letters  shows  a  vigorous  increase. 
The  rural  carrier  makes  one  trip  a  day  over  a  dis- 
tance of  sixteen  to  twenty-four  miles.  He  supplies 


25O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

his  own  conveyance — horse  and  cart  or  bicycle — 
and  at  rates  of  from  $175  upwards,  the  average 
being  about  $300.  It  is  estimated  that,  at  that 
rate,  $60,000,000  (about  half  the  annual  pension 
bill)  would  provide  free  rural  delivery  all  over  the 
United  States.  That  would  mean,  among  other 
things,  employment  for  200,000  persons."  The 
same  horse  and  cart  or  motor  vehicle  that  collects 
and  delivers  letters  and  newspapers,  can  collect 
and  deliver  parcels  up  to  sixty  or  even  to  one  hun- 
dred pounds  in  weight,  with  no  extra  cost  for 
the  driver  and  but  very  little  extra  cost  for  the 
team.  I  believe  it  altogether  possible  within  the 
next  few  years  to  secure  a  house-to-house  parcels 
post  within  the  entire  territory  served  by  the 
United  States  Post-office  as  cheap  as  the  present 
express  between  New  York  and  Jersey  City— 
twenty-five  cents  a  hundred  pounds.  It  requires 
no  great  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  see  this  horse 
and  wagon  or  motor-car  used  for  the  transfer  of 
persons  as  well  as  of  other  mail  matter  between  the 
different  railway  stations  and  the  homes  of  the 
people,  and  thus  to  see  the  principle  of  equal  door- 
to-door  rates,  suggested  by  Wellington  on  page  54 
of  his  Economic  Theory  of  Railway  Location,  carried 
out  to  its  extremest  limit. 

I  even  expect  to  see  a  similar  "  Door-to-Door 
Parcels  and  Traveller's  Post "  adopted  by  the 
United  Nations  of  the  World. 

The  section  of  this  bill  guaranteeing  to  the  hold- 
ers of  railway  securities  a  return  on  their  invest- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2$  I 

ments  equal  to  the  average  annual  return  of  the 
seven  years  ending  June  30,  1897,  has  been  sharply 
criticised  by  some  of  my  friends  as  too  liberal  to 
railway  investors,  too  burdensome  to  the  public. 
I  should  be  glad  to  accept  any  amendment  to  this 
section  that  would  be  more  just  to  the  public,  pro- 
vided that  the  bill  thus  amended  could  be  carried 
through  Congress,  and  pass  the  scrutiny  of  the 
Supreme  Court. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  Government 
should  take  possession  of  the  railroads,  and  should 
pay  for  them  in  Government  checks  redeemable  on 
demand  in  railway  services.  It  has  been  further 
suggested  that  these  Government  railway  checks 
would  form  a  money  of  the  highest  intrinsic  value. 
— (See  pamphlet  by  Henry  Allen  Bell,  Springfield, 
Illinois,  The  New  Idea.)  There  is  something  very 
attractive  in  these  suggestions.  As  to  paying  the 
private  owners  of  these  public  highways  in  checks 
entitling  the  holder  to  such  use  of  these  public 
highways  as  is  provided  for  under  this  bill,  the  plan 
has  the  merit  of  the  highest  railroad  precedent.  It 
would,  indeed,  be  nothing  more  than  paying  for 
the  railroads  in  railroad  coin,  pure  money  from  the 
railroad  mint.  It  is  the  regular  practice,  the  long- 
established  custom  for  railway  managers  to  pay  for 
services  rendered  in  paper  checks  (not  transfer- 
able, however)  entitling  the  holder  to  free  rides  or 
to  very  similar  privileges  as  to  freight.  Passes  are 
the  standard  coin  in  which,  according  to  the  testi- 
mony of  the  officers  of  a  leading  road,  all  the  rail- 


A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 


roads  of  New  England  are  accustomed  to  pay  for 
the  services  of  those  whose  influence  is  of  im- 
portance to  the  railroads.  The  same  currency  is 
in  common  use  in  payment  for  advertisements, 
etc. 

It  is  only  necessary  that  these  checks  should  be 
issued  by  the  National  Government  and  be  made 
transferable,  to  give  them  the  character  of  money, 
and  money  of  the  highest  intrinsic  value.  A  paper 
dollar  that  would  entitle  the  holder  to  the  trans- 
portation of  himself  or  of  a  ton  of  merchandise 
across  the  American  Continent  would  have  a  value 
at  least  sixteen  times  as  great  as  that  of  25.8  grains 
of  the  purest  Klondyke  gold.  This  dollar,  more- 
over, would  constantly  appreciate  in  value  as  the 
transportation  system  of  the  country  developed  and 
as  it  extended  its  services  by  union  with  its  neigh- 
bors. And  as  country  after  country  joined  the 
International  Transportation  Union,  the  inter- 
national transport  checks,  issued  by  the  different 
countries,  entitling  the  holder  to  transportation  for 
persons  and  for  merchandise  from  any  one  station 
in  the  country  of  its  issue  to  any  station  in  any 
other  country  within  the  Union,  these  international 
checks  would  form  an  international  currency  vastly 
better  than  a  currency  based  on  any  metal.  Such 
a  currency  would  always  be  at  par. 

This  plan  of  paying  for  the  railroads  in  railroad 
services  has  the  further  merit  that  it  would  cost  the 
public  very  little.  Extended,  as  it  should  be,  over 
a  considerable  period,  say  fifty  years,  the  additional 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2$$ 

loads  to  the  Government  trains  occasioned  by  the 
transportation  of  the  passengers  and  the  merchan- 
dise carried  on  the  checks — paper  dollars  and  parts 
of  dollars — issued  by  the  Government  to  represent 
the  guaranteed  interest,  and  the  two  per  cent,  of 
the  principal  taken  up  year  by  year,  these  addi- 
tional loads  to  the  Government  trains  would  hardly 
be  noticed  in  the  immense  volume  of  business  that 
would  spring  up  under  the  new  conditions. 

There  is  to  my  mind  something  worse  than  pue- 
rile in  the  mad  rush  into  the  regions  of  Arctic  cold 
for  gold.  It  is  not  worth  the  lives  that  it  costs. 
What  is  there,  indeed,  in  either  the  white  or  the 
yellow  metal  that  makes  them  of  more  real  value  to 
the  modern  man  than  were  the  black  and  white 
shells — the  wampum — which,  in  the  olden  time, 
the  American  Indian  used  for  money  ?  Can  either 
gold  or  silver  be  used  for  food  or  shelter  or  raiment? 
Forty  years  ago,  when  California  and  Australia  were 
sending  out  their  floods  of  the  yellow  metal,  several 
of  the  rulers  of  Europe  became  so  frightened  at  the 
thought  of  its  possible  depreciation  that  they  de- 
monetized it.  It  is  altogether  possible  that,  in  the 
not  distant  future,  both  gold  and  silver  will  become 
so  plentiful  that  neither  will  have  any  value  as 
money  other  than  that  given  to  it  by  Government 
fiat.  The  true  basis  for  money  is  some  common 
want,  and  there  is  no  want  more  universal  than  that 
embodied  in  our  public  agencies  of  transportation 
and  communication.  The  railways  are  the  circu- 
lating system  of  a  country;  the  tracks  are  the 


254  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

arteries  and  veins;  the  trains  are  the  life-bearing 
current;  the  passengers  and  merchandise  in  the 
trains  are  the  life  itself.  A  money  currency  based 
on  the  movements  of  persons  and  of  merchandise 
by  transport  agencies  owned  and  controlled  by  the 
government  of  a  nation,  would  be  based  on  the  life 
of  that  nation. 

That  this  Royal  Highway  Business  is  a  govern- 
mental function,  the  especial  function,  moreover, 
of  National  Governments,  is  no  longer  a  matter  of 
doubt.  George  R.  Blanchard  has  clearly  indicated 
the  railroad  legislation  needed  in  this  country,  in 
his  quotation  from  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of 
the  German  Empire,  prior  to  the  purchase  of  its 
main  railway  lines.  Although  noted  but  a  few 
pages  back,  it  will  bear  repetition.  "  The  uniting 
of  the  property,  of  the  traffic  and  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  inland  main  lines  under  the  strong 
arm  of  the  state,  are  the  only  efficient  and  proper 
means  to  solve  the  task." 

The  Germans  acted  on  the  advice  of  this  com- 
mittee, and  experience  has  proved  their  wisdom. 
As  long  ago  as  September,  1894,  Gustave  Cohn, 
writing  in  the  Economic  Journal,  on  "  The  Rail- 
ways and  Waterways  of  Germany,"  said:  "  The 
Government  of  Prussia  not  only  succeeded  in  buy- 
ing up  the  railways  from  the  chartered  companies 
in  the  open  market  and  at  very  liberal  prices,  but 
the  financial  results  of  the  annual  net  return  of  the 
railways  was  so  remarkable  that  the  Railway  Ad- 
ministration, after  paying  the  interest  on  its  loan 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


capital,  handed  over  during  the  period  1887-1892 
^42,000,000  towards  abolishing  the  National  debt, 
and  for  the  general  needs  of  the  state.  And  this 
went  on  hand  in  hand  with  considerable  reductions 
in  passenger  rates,  and  especially  in  rates  for  goods' 
transport." 

And  in  his  report  for  October,  1897,  Consul 
Monaghan  gives  similar  testimony:  "  State  Owner- 
ship of  Railways,"  he  says,  "  plays  a  very  import- 
ant part  in  Prussia's  finances.  Earning  enormous 
sums,  serving  commerce  and  manufactures  in 
times  of  peace  and  all  strategic  purposes  in  times 
of  war,  they  have  more  than  justified  the  arguments 
that  urged  the  Government  to  own  them,  and  the 
liberal  policies  that  constructed  and  developed 
them  in  all  parts  of  the  empire.  More  than  one 
half  of  Prussia's  income  is  derived  from  railroads. 
In  the  year  ending  June  30,  1897,  after  putting 
aside  $4,760,000  for  the  disposition  fund,  the  rail- 
roads paid  full  one  half  of  all  other  Government 
expenses.  Of  the  $23,800,000  surplus  noted  in  the 
1896-97  returns,  more  than  half  had  its  origin  in 
the  surplus  of  the  railroads.  No  other  branch  of 
public  property  pays  so  surely  and  so  well.  The 
certainty  of  the  receipts,  the  amount,  the  ease  with 
which  they  are  obtained,  and  their  cash  character 
render  them  the  most  useful  of  all  the  moneys 
turned  into  the  public  treasury.  The  tendency  all 
over  the  Empire  is  toward  State  and  City  ownership 
of  all  kinds  of  transportation  facilities,  roads,  rail- 
roads for  steam,  horses,  electricity,  etc.,  as  well  as 


256  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

of  telephones,  telegraphs,  and  other  means  of  com- 
munication." 

The  latest  reports  from  New  South  Wales  tell  a 
similar  story  as  to  the  results  of  the  public  owner- 
ship of  the  Royal-Railed  Highways  of  that  demo- 
cratic state. 

It  is  said  that  the  last  of  the  important  private 
railroads  of  Belgium,  The  Belgian  Grand  Central 
Road,  will  soon  become  the  property  of  the  Belgian 
people. 

"  The  National  Council  of  Switzerland  has  fol- 
lowed the  referendum  vote  in  favor  of  the  public 
ownership  of  railways  by  the  adoption  of  a  bill 
providing  for  State  purchase  at  a  figure  approxi- 
mating twenty-five  times  the  average  annual  net 
earnings  of  the  roads  during  the  past  decade.  In 
other  words,  the  Government  assumes  that  the 
value  of  the  roads  is  the  sum  upon  which  they  have 
been  yielding  four  per  cent,  to  their  owners. 
There  will  be  no  such  scandals  as  occurred  when 
the  English  Government  bought  out  the  telegraph 
companies,  paying  for  some  of  them  double  their 
market  value  a  few  months  before  their  purchase. 
In  Switzerland  such  plundering  of  the  public  is,  of 
course,  impossible,  as  the  terms  of  the  purchase 
will  have  to  be  submitted  to  popular  approval,  and 
the  general  public  in  Switzerland  has  no  disposition 
to  enrich  the  security  owners  at  its  own  expense. 
Representatives  may  thus  sacrifice  the  public,  but 
the  public  will  not  sacrifice  itself.  The  aggregate 
sum  named  for  the  purchase  is  $186,000,000.  This 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


will  increase  the  public  debt  (now  $15,000,000) 
from  $5  to  $67  per  capita,  but  inasmuch  as  the 
public  is  now  paying  four  per  cent,  interest  on  the 
railway  securities,  and  hereafter  will  have  to  pay 
but  three  and  one  half  percent,  on  its  own  bonds 
covering  them,  there  is  a  prospective  decrease  in 
the  public  burdens.  Doubtless  the  present  finan- 
cial success  of  the  Prussian  State  Railway  System 
had  much  to  do  with  the  movement  for  public 
ownership,  but  a  still  stronger  impulse  was  the  de- 
sire for  uniformity  of  tariffs  throughout  the  country, 
without  discriminations  between  places  and  persons, 
and  the  cheapening  of  transportation  for  working- 
men  and  persons  of  moderate  means.  These  were 
the  first  '  beneficial  effects  '  of  state  ownership  in 
Prussia,  and  they  will  doubtless  be  the  first  benefi- 
cial effects  of  the  same  system  in  Switzerland."  — 
The  Outlook,  October  16,  1897. 

That  clear-sighted  statesmen  very  early  saw  the 
fearful  mistake  that  had  been  made  in  giving  the 
railroads  of  England  into  private  hands  is  proved 
by  the  following  quotation  from  Lord  Macaulay's 
speech  on  "  The  Ten-Hour  Bill,  delivered  in  Par- 
liament, May  22,  1846. 

"  Fifteen  years  ago,"  said  the  distinguished  his- 
torian, "  it  became  evident  that  railroads  would 
soon,  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  supersede  to  a 
great  extent  the  old  highways.  The  tracing  of  the 
new  routes  which  were  to  join  all  the  chief  cities, 
ports,  and  naval  arsenals  of  the  island  was  a  matter 

of  the  highest  National  importance.    But,  unfortu- 
17 


2$8  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

nately,  those  who  should  have  acted  for  the  nation 
refused  to  interefere.  Consequently  numerous 
questions  which  were  really  Public  Questions, 
Questions  concerning  THE  PUBLIC  CONVENIENCE, 

THE    PUBLIC    PROSPERITY,     THE    PUBLIC     SECURITY, 

were  treated  as  private  questions.  That  the  whole 
society  was  interested  in  having  a  good  system  of 
internal  communication  seemed  to  be  forgotten. 
The  speculator  who  wanted  a  large  dividend  on 
his  shares,  the  landowner  who  wanted  a  large  price 
for  his  acres  obtained  a  full  hearing,  but  NOBODY 

APPEARED    IN    BEHALF    OF    THE    COMMUNITY.       The 

effect  of  that  great  error  we  feel,  and  shall  not 
soon  cease  to  feel." 

That  this  great  error  has  not  been  rectified  in  the 
half  century  since  Lord  Macaulay's  notable  speech 
has  been  due  to  several  causes.  In  the  first  place 
England  is  an  island,  and  her  chief  industrial 
centres,  connected  by  water  roads  (by  sea  and 
canal),  open  the  year  round,  are  to  a  great  degree 
independent  of  the  railroads.  The  splendid  mac- 
adam roads,  already  in  existence  when  Stephenson 
built  his  first  Royal-Railed  Highway,  have  also 
served  to  save  the  English  people  from  the  absolute 
dominion  of  Stephenson' s  successors.  Then,  again, 
her  freedom  from  the  custom's  tariffs  usually  levied 
by  the  nations  of  the  earth  upon  their  foreign  trade, 
has  largely  counterbalanced  the  evil  influence  of 
the  heavy  railroad  tariffs  levied  upon  the  inland 
trade  of  England.  Almost  from  the  very  birth  of 
the  railway,  moreover,  the  English  railway  man- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


agers  have  been  a  paramount  power  in  the  English 
Parliament,  and  they  have  skilfully  parried  attacks 
upon  them.  Some  of  them,  too,  have  had  the  wit, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Great  Eastern  Road,  to  make 
timely  concessions  that  have  quieted  public  clamor. 
The  trend  of  things,  however,  is  unmistakable,  and 
England  must,  sooner  or  later,  bring  her  railroads 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  State. 

The  time  cannot  be  far  distant  when  the  Royal- 
Railed  Highways  of  every  nation  will  be  under  the 
direct  control  of  the  national  government.  When 
the  United  States  assumes  the  control  of  its  rail- 
ways, the  application  of  the  postal  principle  to  the 
determination  of  railway  tolls  will  be  a  natural 
sequence. 

In  his  great  speech  in  favor  of  a  uniform  two- 
cent  letter  rate,  delivered  in  Congress,  February 
21,  1849,  Congressman  Palfrey  of  Massachusetts 
spoke  as  follows:  "  The  idea  of  charging  higher 
postage  on  a  letter  on  account  of  the  greater  dis- 
tance it  travels  is  an  absurdity.  Why  should  I 
pay  more  for  a  letter  from  here  to  New  Orleans 
than  to  Baltimore  ?  Because  of  the  greater  utility 
and  value  of  the  former  or  because  of  the  cost  of 
its  conveyance  ?  The  former  may  undoubtedly  be 
far  the  less  important  of  the  two,  and  as  to  the  cost 
of  conveying  it  a  longer  distance,  it  is  nothing,  or 
if  anything  so  little  as  to  be  inappreciable." 

The  long  routes  are  all  made  up  of  a  series  of 
short  ones.  Whether  the  letter  or  the  10,000  letters 
mailed  at  Boston  shall  stop  at  Worcester  or  go  on 


260  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

to  Galena,  will  not  make  one  dollar  difference  in 
the  contract.  Says  Rowland  Hill,  it  is  not  a  matter 
of  inference,  but  a  matter  of  fact  that  the  expense 
of  the  Post-Office  is  practically  the  same  whether  a 
letter  is  going  from  London  to  a  village  1 1  miles 
distant  or  to  Edinburgh,  397  miles.  The  differ- 
ence is  not  expressible  in  the  smallest  coin  we 
have.  The  average  cost  of  the  transportation  of 
each  letter,  taking  all  the  mails  in  the  kingdom,  is 
estimated  at  one  ninth  of  a  farthing.  At  this  rate, 
the  average  cost  of  the  transportation  of  an  half- 
ounce  American  letter  is  about  one  half  a  mill,  a 
rate  which  it  is  idle  to  think  of  graduating  by  dis- 
tance. 

At  ten  cents  a  mile  for  the  transportation  of  a 
mail-bag,  it  may  cost  the  Department  a  dollar  to 
carry  a  single  letter  ten  miles,  while  10,000  letters 
in  another  bag  are  carried  at  the  same  rate  one 
hundred  miles,  each  costing  for  ten  times  the  dis- 
tance only  one  thousandth  part  as  much. 

The  Assistant  Postmaster-General,  in  his  recent 
letter  (page  31)  presents  the  argument  by  which 
the  principle  of  a  uniform  rate  of  postage  in  Eng- 
land is  sustained,  viz. :  "  An  average  rate  that  will, 
in  the  aggregate,  defray  the  whole  cost  of  trans- 
portation on  the  short  routes,  will  in  the  aggregate 
defray  the  whole  cost  of  transportation;  for  the 
whole  service  consists,  in  their  respective  locali- 
ties, of  short  routes.  That  circumstance  causes  no 
additional  expense,  consequently  there  is  no  reason, 
looking  to  the  cost  of  transportation  as  the  only 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  26 1 

cost  of  postage,  for  making  any  further  charge 
upon  letters  hauled  over  long  distances.  Mr. 
Speaker,  if  I  had  the  time,  I  should  not  know 
where  to  begin  to  enumerate  the  blessings  of  which 
this  single  agency  of  a  Reformed  Postage  System 
would  be  a  certain  source,  in  such  grandeur  and 
beauty  does  the  prospect  open  before  one's  view. 
As  to  influence  on  our  industrial  prosperity,  how 
mightily  would  it  operate  on  the  activity  of  busi- 
ness and  accordingly  on  the  wealth  of  the  nation! 
But  this  would  not  be  the  whole  of  the  benefit  nor 
the  best  part.  How  would  science,  letters,  inven- 
tion, benevolent  enterprises  rejoice  in  this  privilege 
of  freer  communication  !  What  an  intellectual 
action  it  would  quicken  in  every  class!  I  think 
very  much  of  colleges.  I  dearly  love  common 
schools,  but  I  shall  not,  at  present,  undertake  to 
say  that  CHEAP  POSTAGE  will  not  turn  out  to  be  an 
institution  for  education  more  efficient  than  any 
other.  It  would  set  everybody  to  learn  to  read 
and  write.  Those  who  had  not  already  learned 
and  those  who  had;  it  would  teach  to  describe 
and  narrate  and  think,  and  would  excite  them  to 
study  and  observe.  I  cannot  tell  how  soon  it  might 
be  a  question  whether  the  mariner's  compass  or 
the  art  of  printing  had  changed  the  condition  of 
man  more  than  a  good  system  of  postage.  Then 
as  to  its  bearing  on  the  cultivation  of  the  affec- 
tions; no  consideration  could  be  more  fit  to  be 
presented  here,  for  a  man  must  be  far  too  stupid 
to  have  a  place  in  this  Hall  who  does  not  see  its 


262  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

profound  and  intimate  connection  with  all  the 
sources  of  a  nation's  welfare.  Friends,  brothers, 
and  sisters,  even  parents  and  children,  separate  to 
pass  the  rest  of  their  lives  apart.  Why  is  it  that, 
in  time,  they  become  almost  strangers  to  one 
another  ?  Young  men  and  women  leave  their 
homes  for  business,  for  service,  for  school.  Why 
does  not  a  letter  sent  and  received  two  or  three 
times  a  week,  every  day,  keep  up  their  interest  in 
their  homes,  renew  constantly  a  pure  enjoyment 
and  afford  the  best  security  against  every  moral 
danger  ?  Simply  because  it  would  cost  too  much 
time  and  money.  Never  was  a  simpler  mechanism 
devised  for  working  out  great  and  good  effects.  A 
more  beneficent  agency  can  scarcely  be  imagined, 
and  before  long  this  nation  and  Christendom  will 
say  so." 

Every  word  of  this  grand  utterance  of  the  noted 
historian  of  New  England  applies  to  our  proposed 
postage  scheme,  but  with  ten  thousand  times  greater 
force.  The  choice  is  before  us.  On  the  one  hand 
we  have  this  bright  picture  portrayed  by  Palfrey, 
on  the  other  the  fearful  contrast  painted  by  the 
graphic  pen  of  Lloyd.  I  will  not  doubt  the  issue. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  263 


CHAPTER   VI. 

PRUSSIAN    RAILWAY    ADMINISTRATION. 

THE  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Politi- 
cal and  Social  Science,  for  November,  1897,  con- 
tains a  most  interesting  paper  on  Prussian  Railroad 
Administration,  written  by  Dr.  B.  H.  Meyer,  of 
the  University  of  Wisconsin.  This  paper  is  of  such 
inestimable  value  in  view  of  our  proposed  scheme 
of  government  management  of  railways  that,  with 
the  permission  of  Dr.  Meyer,  I  shall  give  a  part  of 
it  to  my  readers  : 

"  On  the  first  of  April,  1895,  there  were  in  Prussia 
2200  kilometres  of  private  and  27,060  kilometres 
of  state  roads,  all,  however,  subject  to  the  double 
control  of  the  government  and  of  the  people. 

"  On  -the  one  hand  we  have  a  group  of  organs 
which  represent  railroad  interests  in  particular,  and 
which  take  the  railroad  point  of  view.  The  Min- 
ister of  Public  Works,  the  railroad  directories,  the 
general  conference  and  tariff  commission,  and  the 
Society  of  German  Railroads  fall  into  this  group, 
although  the  two  latter  stand  in  a  measure  on  the 
border  line,  and  of  them  are  none  confined  exclu- 
sively to  railroad  interests.  Legal  responsibility  is 


264  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

fixed  in  the  first  two.  On  the  other  hand  we  have 
the  national  and  circuit  councils  with  their  stand- 
ing committee  of  shippers.  These  primarily  take 
the  social  and  economic  point  of  view.  They  are 
not  legally  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  the  rail- 
roads, but  act  as  advisory  bodies.  They  represent 
all  the  different  interests  of  the  nation,  and  through 
them  every  citizen  has  not  only  an  opportunity  but 
a  right  to  make  his  wants  known.  A  fair  and 
prompt  hearing  can  be  denied  to  no  man,  rich  or 
poor.  The  railroads  are  made  real  servants.  All 
the  administrative,  legal,  and  advisory  bodies  are 
organically  connected  with  one  another  and  with 
the  parliament.  The  lines  may  be  drawn  taut  from 
above  as  well  as  from  below.  The  elaborate  system 
of  local  offices  makes  the  system  democratic,  and 
the  cabinet  office  and  the  directories  give  it  the 
necessary  centralization.  The  system  presents  that 
unity  which  a  great  business  requires  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  that  ramification  and  elas- 
ticity which  the  diverse  and  manifold  interests  of  a 
great  nation  need  for  their  growth  and  expansion. 
It  reveals  the  railroads  to  the  public,  and  the  pub- 
lic to  the  railroads.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find 
in  Prussia  to-day,  among  the  representatives  of  any 
class  or  interest,  objections  to  the  entire  railroad 
system  which  are  not  relatively  insignificant.  Both 
the  public  and  the  railroads  have  gained  more  and 
more  as  the  system  has  developed. 

"  Were  we  to  trace  the  development  of  the  Prus- 
sian system  we  should  find  that  most  of  the  rail- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  26$ 

roads  have  been  built  from  social  and  economic 
considerations,  although  political  and  military  con- 
sideration have  at  times  been  dominant  factors.  It 
is  absolutely  untenable,  however,  to  maintain,  as  is 
sometimes  done,  that  Prussia  makes  her  railroads 
a  military  and  a  political  machine.  Certainly  these 
elements  may  be  discovered  in  the  history  of  Prus- 
sian railroads,  but  one  may  unhesitatingly  say  that 
if  there  is  any  system  of  railroads  in  the  world 
which  truly  and  effectively  serves  all  the  interests 
of  a  nation,  that  system  is  the  Prussian. 

"  The  constitution  of  the  German  Empire  makes 
it  the  duty  of  the  government  to  cause  the  German 
railroads  to  be  managed  as  a  uniform  network  in 
the  interests  of  the  general  traffic,  and  that  end  is 
well  attained  under  the  German  system  of  railroad 
management. 

"  Coming  now  to  a  particular  description  of  the 
various  organs  which  make  up  the  Prussian  Rail- 
road Administration  we  find  that  the  chief  execu- 
tive officer  of  the  system  is  the  Minister  of  Public 
Works.  Under  him  are  twenty  Royal  State  Direc- 
tories, composed  of  a  president  appointed  by  the 
king  and  the  requisite  number  of  associates,  two  of 
whom,  an  Ober-Regierungsrath  and  an  Ober- 
Baurath,  may  act  as  substitutes  of  the  president 
under  the  direction  of  the  minister.  Each  directory 
has  complete  control  of  all  the  railways  within  its 
limits,  although  the  subordinate  civil  administra- 
tive organs  of  the  state  have  certain  powers  in  the 
granting  of  concessions,  police  regulations,  etc., 


266  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

powers  that  would  probably  be  exercised  in  this 
country  by  our  state  and  municipal  officers."  Dr. 
Meyer  characterizes  these  directories  as  general 
administrative  organs,  one  of  whose  chief  functions 
is  the  proper  co-ordination  of  all  the  parts  of  the 
railroad  system. 

"Below  and  subordinated  to  them  are  special 
administrative  organs,  upon  whom  falls  the  duty  of 
local  adaptation  and  supervision.  There  are  six 
classes  of  these  local  offices,  whose  functions  are 
quite  clearly  indicated  by  their  names — operating, 
machine,  traffic,  shop,  telegraph,  and  building. 
Special  instructions  are  sent  to  each  class  of  these 
offices  from  the  Ministry  of  Public  works,  setting 
forth  (i)  the  position  of  the  office  in  the  railroad 
service,  (2)  its  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  business, 
and  (3)  general  provisions. 

"  One  of  the  foremost  duties  of  the  local  traffic 
office  is  to  maintain  a  '  living  union  '  between  the 
railroad  administration  and  the  public.  For  this 
purpose  the  chief  of  the  office  is  in  duty  bound,  by 
means  of  personal  interviews  and  observations,  to 
inform  himself  concerning  the  needs  of  the  service 
in  his  district,  to  investigate  and  to  remedy  com- 
plaints and  evils  without  delay,  and  to  take  such 
measures  as  will  secure  the  most  efficient  service. 
It  is  also  one  of  his  duties  to  inform  the  public  con- 
cerning the  organization  and  administration  of  the 
railroads,  so  as  to  avoid  idle  complaints.  This 
single  provision  in  the  rules  governing  one  of  the 
local  offices  illustrates  the  spirit  of  them  all." 


AND   PASSENGER  POST.  267 

So  much  for  the  direct,  legal  administration  of 
the  Prussian  railroads.  It  is  the  object  of  our 
scheme  to  provide  a  similar  system  of  administra- 
tion for  the  railroads  of  the  United  States,  modified 
as  may  appear  to  be  necessary  by  our  vast  extent 
of  territory  and  by  our  different  system  of  govern- 
ment. And  the  business  will  be  vastly  simplified 
by  the  provision  in  our  scheme  which  requires  that 
the  taxes  levied  for  the  support  of  our  great 
National  Highways  shall  be  regulated  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  assembled  in  their  great 
National  Council,  and  shall  be  determined  on  the 
postal — the  cost  of  the  service — principle. 

That  this  great  public  business  can  be  safely  in- 
augurated and  can  be  successfully  managed  by  our 
National  Government  is  beyond  the  question  of  a 
doubt. 

We  shall  be  greatly  aided  in  our  task,  however, 
by  continuing  the  study  of  the  different  organs 
which  have  been  developed  in  the  course  of  the 
growth  of  this  admirable  German  railroad  system. 

The  associations  representing  the  different  rail- 
roads, "  The  General  Conference,"  which  is  com- 
posed of  members  representing  all  the  German 
roads,  whose  votes  are  determined  by  the  number 
of  miles  of  road  which  each  member  who  is  present 
represents,  and  its  subordinate  bodies,  "  The 
Tariff-Comission  and  The  Committee  of  Those 
Interested  in  Transportation,"  these  bodies  seem 
to  have  their  prototypes  in  this  country,  and  there- 
fore demand  little  of  our  attention. 


268  A    GENERAL   FREIGHT 

"  The  associations  which  especially  interest  the 
American  are  the  democratic  Advisory  Councils, 
which  although  established  in  Prussia  on  a  legal 
basis,  and  although  composed  in  part  of  nominees 
of  the  government  are  yet  essentially  representative 
of  the  popular  interests. 

"  Of  these  associations  the  most  important  is  the 
national  council,  which  is  the  advisory  board  of 
the  central  administration.  The  circuit  councils, 
nine  in  number,  are  the  advisory  boards  of  the 
different  railroad  directories  within  their  respective 
limits.  The  national  council  is  composed  of  forty 
members,  holding  office  for  three  years.  Of  these 
ten  are  appointed  and  thirty  are  elected  by  the 
circuit  councils  from  residents  of  the  respective 
districts,  and  represent  agriculture,  forestry,  man- 
ufacture and  trade  according  to  a  scheme  of  repre- 
sentation published  in  a  royal  decree.  Of  the 
appointed  members,  three  are  named  by  the  minis- 
ter of  agriculture,  domains,  and  forests;  three  by 
the  minister  of  trade  and  industry;  two  by  the 
minister  of  finance;  and  two  by  the  minister  of 
public  works.  An  equal  number  of  alternates  is 
appointed  at  the  same  time.  Direct  bureaucratic 
influence  is  guarded  against  by  exclusion  from  ap- 
pointment of  all  immediate  state  officials.  The 
elective  members  are  distributed  among  provinces, 
departments,  and  cities,  by  the  royal  decree  just 
referred  to,  and  both  members  and  alternates  are 
elected  by  the  circuit  councils.  The  presiding 
officer  and  his  alternate  or  substitute  are  appointed 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  269 

by  the  king.  In  addition,  the  minister  of  public 
works  is  empowered  to  call  in  expert  testimony 
whenever  he  may  think  it  necessary.  Such  spe- 
cialists, as  well  as  regular  members,  receive  for 
their  services  fifteen  marks  (about  $3.60)  a  day  and 
mileage. 

"  The  national  council  meets  at  least  twice  annu- 
ally, and  deliberates  on  such  matters  as  the  proposed 
budget,  normal  freight  and  passenger  rates,  classi- 
fication of  freight,  special  and  differential  rates, 
proposed  changes  in  regulations  governing  the 
operation  of  the  roads,  etc.  It  is  required  by  law 
to  submit  its  opinions  on  any  question  brought  be- 
fore it  by  the  minister  of  public  works;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  may  recommend  to  the  minister  any- 
thing which  it  considers  conducive  to  the  utility 
and  effectiveness  of  the  railroad  service.  Its 
proceedings  are  regularly  submitted  to  the  Land- 
tag, where  they  are  considered  in  connection  with 
the  budget,  thus  establishing  '  an  organic  connec- 
tion '  between  the  national  council  and  the  parlia- 
ment. In  this  way  the  proceedings  are  made 
accessible  to  every  one,  and  an  opportunity  is 
given  to  approve  or  disapprove  what  the  council 
does  through  parliamentary  representatives.  The 
system  is  one  of  mutual  questioning  and  answering 
on  the  part  of  the  minister  of  public  works,  the 
national  council,  and  the  parliament.  " 

How  the  circuit  councils  are  chosen,  Dr.  Meyer 
does  not  tell  us,  but  their  underlying  principle  is 
"  the  representation  of  all  the  economic  interests 


270  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

in  the  conduct  of  the  railroads.  If  a  circuit  com- 
prises railroads  covering  territory  of  other  German 
states,  the  chambers  of  commerce,  industrial  and 
agricultural  societies  of  such  territory  may  also  be 
represented  in  the  council.  The  minister  of  public 
works  has  power  to  admit  other  members,  and 
frequently  does  so  when  the  nature  of  the  questions 
upon  which  the  council  deliberates  makes  it  desir- 
able. 

'  The  circuit  council  stands  in  a  relation  to  the 
railroad  directory  similar  to  that  of  the  national 
council  to  the  minister.  The  law  makes  it  manda- 
tory upon  the  directory  to  consult  the  circuit  council 
on  all  important  matters  concerning  the  railroads  in 
that  circuit.  This  applies  especially  to  time-tables 
and  rate-schedules.  On  the  other  hand,  the  coun- 
cil has  the  right,  which  it  frequently  exercises,  of 
making  recommendations  to  the  directory.  The 
standing  committee  of  the  council  is  an  important 
body.  It  meets  regularly  some  time  before  the 
full  council  hold  its  sessions,  and  its  proceedings 
form  the  basis  of  the  deliberations  in  the  council. 
The  committee  receives  petitions,  memorials,  and 
other  communications.  The  bearers  of  these  are 
invited  to  appear  before  the  committee  and  to 
advocate  their  cause.  Questions  are  asked  and 
answered  on  both  sides,  and  after  all  the  arguments 
have  been  presented  the  committee  votes  upon  the 
petition  or  request,  usually  in  the  form  of  a  resolu- 
tion adopted  by  majority  vote  recommending  the 
council  to  accept  or  reject  the  demands  made  in 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2/1 

the  petitions.  The  action  of  the  committee  is  re- 
ported, on  each  question,  by  a  member  designated 
for  that  purpose,  to  the  full  council  at  its  next 
session.  While  the  decision  of  the  committee  is 
usually  accepted  by  the  council,  it  in  no  way  binds 
that  body.  Before  the  council  meets  each  member 
has  an  opportunity  to  examine  the  arguments  pre- 
sented before  the  committee  and  the  facts  upon 
which  its  decisions  are  based.  If  the  advocates  of 
the  petitions  before  the  council  present  new  evi- 
dence, or  if  the  recommendations  of  the  committee 
are  shown  to  be  unsound,  the  council  simply  re- 
verses the  decision  of  the  committee. 

1 '  These  advisory  councils  have  spread  into  all 
the  German  states,  also  into  Austria,  Italy,  Russia, 
Denmark,  Roumania,  and  in  a  modified  form  into 
France.  In  composition  and  organization  they  are 
much  alike.  They  owe  their  existence,  however, 
not,  as  in  Prussia,  to  law  but  simply  to  administra- 
tive orders.  In  Switzerland  there  are  no  real  ad- 
visory councils,  but  the  public  is  represented  by 
the  regular  civil,  commercial,  and  industrial  organ- 
izations. These  submit  memorials  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Railroads  and  Post.  The  wishes  of  the 
public  as  to  the  time  and  frequency  of  trains  are 
presented  regularly  twice  each  year  by  the  cantonal 
governments.  The  railroad  department  then  calls 
a  joint  session  of  the  representatives  of  the  cantons 
and  of  the  railroad  companies,  where  these  ques- 
tions are  considered." 

That  the  state  roads  of  Prussia  are  run  rather  in 


2/2  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

the  service  of  the  public  than  for  the  purpose  of 
taxing  the  public,  as  is  generally  the  case  with  the 
private  railroads  of  this  country,  is  clearly  brought 
out  by  Dr.  Meyer  in  his  account  of  the  petition  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  Rhenish  City  of 
Lennep  in  favor  of  reducing  the  classification  of 
horseshoes.  '  The  petitioners  said  that  many 
of  the  factories  were  unfavorably  located,  and  it 
was  one  of  the  highest  duties  of  the  state  to  promote 
industrial  activity  in  regions  which  lie  away  from 
the  great  channels  of  trade,  if  it  could  be  done 
without  too  great  a  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the 
public.  The  desired  concession  on  the  part  of  the 
railroads  would  do  this.  It  was  unjust  for  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Saxon  State  railroads  to  assert, 
as  they  had  done  in  the  tariff  commission,  that  the 
change  in  the  classification  of  horseshoes  would 
benefit  the  Rhenish  industry  only.  Particularistic 
designs  should  not  be  suspected  in  a  movement 
which  was  deeply  rooted  in  economic  necessities. 
The  representatives  of  the  Bavarian  railroads  had 
considered  fiscal  reasons  only,  but  these  alone 
could  not  be  decisive.  It  would  not  be  business- 
like for  the  state,  in  order  to  gain  a  temporary 
advantage,  to  sacrifice  the  very  source  of  this  gain. 
The  railroads  would  fare  worse  with  high  rates  and 
a  stagnant  industry  than  with  lower  rates  and  a 
prosperous  industry,  and  it  was  safe  to  assert  that 
the  desired  change  would,  through  an  increased 
output,  ultimately  yield  a  greater  income  to  the 
railroads.  The  established  system  of  rates  would 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2?$ 

not  be  prejudiced;  besides,  when  the  question  of 
system  is  balanced  against  the  welfare  of  an  indus- 
try the  latter  should  prevail.  The  nationalization 
of  railroads  was  undertaken  not  for  fiscal  but  for 
economic  reasons." 

The  mere  recital  of  the  powers  and  duties  of 
these  popular  railway  councils  is  enough  to  prove 
their  utility  in  the  management  of  a  national  trans- 
portation system.  The  recital  further  suggests 
that,  in  our  state  legislatures,  our  municipal  coun- 
cils, and  our  various  industrial  organizations  we 
have  bodies  already  formed  in  this  country  that 
will  be  capable  of  acting  as  advisory  bodies  for  our 
proposed  postal  directories.  The  governors  of  our 
different  states,  with  the  lieutenant-governors  as 
alternates,  might  well  act  together  as  an  advisory 
board  for  the  Postmaster-General  and  his  ten  asso- 
ciates. 

I  am  in  hopes  that,  in  a  very  few  years,  each  of 
the  different  states  will  assume  absolute  control  of 
their  electric  trolley  lines,  and,  supporting  them 
by  taxes  levied  on  the  lands  through  which  they 
pass  and  to  which  they  give  value,  will  make  these 
state  roads — these  bridges  between  the  worker  and 
his  work — altogether  free  of  tolls.  Then  by  con- 
necting these  free  state  roads  with  the  system  of 
interstate  roads,  managed  by  the  National  Govern- 
ment on  the  principles  of  our  proposed  bill,  and 
with  our  ordinary  highways  well  graded  and  mac- 
adamized, the  United  States  will  be  provided  with 
a  reasonably  fair  system  of  public  transportation. 


274  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

One  word  more  as  to  the  Prussian  system  of 
railway  administration.  The  R.  R.  Gazette,  of 
December  24,  1897,  states  that  the  Prussian  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Works  has  recently  given  orders  to 
the  railroad  directors  under  him  to  require  those 
holding  restaurant  and  buffet  privileges  at  stations 
to  furnish  in  the  third-  and  fourth-class  waiting- 
rooms,  besides  the  higher-priced  coffee,  a  cheaper 
coffee,  of  which  a  large  cup  with  milk  and  sugar 
shall  be  sold  for  not  more  than  fifteen  pfennige 
(3.6  cents),  and  without  milk  for  ten  pfennige  (2.4 
cents),  and  the  inspectors  are  to  see  that  this 
cheaper  coffee  is  of  good  quality  and  in  sufficient 
quantity,  especially  when  early  morning  trains  are 
due. 

He  has  also  issued  a  circular  on  care  for  employes 
while  resting  at  such  times  as  they  cannot  be  at 
home.  "  Efforts  should  be  made,"  he  says,  "  to 
provide  proper  shelter  and  an  opportunity  for  warm- 
ing their  meals,  making  coffee,  etc.  Such  provision 
should  be  and  presumably  is  made  in  the  baggage- 
car  for  train-men,  but  it  is  still  more  important  to 
have  it  at  stations  and  places  where  men  work,  where 
track-men  and  station-men  may  be  compelled  to 
wait  long  without  occupation  and  to  take  their 
meals.  Experience  shows  that  at  such  times  the 
men  are  especially  liable  to  indulge  in  intoxicating 
drinks.  This  temptation  should  be  lessened  by 
giving  the  men  clean  and  comfortable  places  to 
stay,  stoves,  etc.,  for  warming  the  meals  they  bring 
with  them  and  for  making  coffee.  When  this  is 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  2/5 

done,  the  railroad  authorities  can  take  severe  steps 
against  those  who  drink  to  excess.  Further,  a 
sharp  watch  should  be  kept  on  the  station  buffets, 
and  the  keepers  of  them  who  furnish  drink  as  well 
as  the  offending  employes  should  be  complained 
of." 

The  regard  for  the  poor  and  for  employes  ex- 
pressed in  these  regulations  is  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  attitude  of  some  of  our  private  railway 
managers  to  the  general  public  and  to  their  em- 
ployes. 

But  this  business  of  public  transportation  reaches 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  nations.  It  is  emphati- 
cally an  international  matter,  a  world  business,  and 
it  was  so  recognized  when  the  diplomatic  repre- 
sentatives of  Belgium,  France,  Germany,  Italy, 
Luxembourg,  Holland,  Austria,  Hungary,  Russia, 
and  Switzerland  signed  the  "  Convention  inter- 
nationale  sur  le  transport  de  marchandises  par 
chemins  de  fer,"  at  Berne,  October  14,  1890. 

This  treaty,  it  is  true,  deals,  for  the  time,  only 
with  international  freight,  but  that  it  must  extend 
to  cover  the  entire  business  of  public  transporta- 
tion is  certain.  Every  three  years  or  sooner,  if  one 
fourth  of  the  treaty-making  states  demand  it,  a 
general  Congress  must  be  called  together,  to  con- 
sider improvements  in  the  agreement.  Any  state 
may  withdraw  from  the  convention  at  the  end  of 
three  years,  on  giving  one  year's  notice,  but  no 
such  notice  has  yet  been  given.  Any  violation  of 
the  treaty  can  be  punished  in  the  courts,  and  a 


276  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

judgment  having  been  rendered  in  one  country,  the 
courts  of  the  others  are  bound  to  assist  in  its  execu- 
tion, unless  the  decision  conflicts  with  their  laws. 
But  so  far  as  a  question  of  fact  is  concerned  there 
is  no  appeal,  and  a  German  court  is  bound  to  ac- 
cept the  findings  of  a  court  in  France.  Germany, 
Austria,  Hungary,  Russia,  Switzerland  and,  to  a 
less  extent,  France  have  embodied  provisions  of  the 
international  code  in  their  internal  codes,  thus  lead- 
ing to  unification  beyond  the  limits  of  international 
traffic. 

"  This  international  code  governs  all  shipments 
of  goods  from  or  through  one  of  the  states  to 
another.  It  provides  for  uniform  through-bills  of 
lading,  prescribes  routes  for  international  traffic, 
fixes  liability  in  cases  of  delay  and  loss,  prohibits 
special  contracts,  rebates,  and  reductions  except 
when  publicly  announced  and  available  to  all,  and 
prescribes  certain  custom-house  regulations. 

"  Not  the  least  important  feature  of  the  treaty  is 
the  creation  of  a  central  bureau,  organized  and 
supervised  by  the  Swiss  Bundesrath,  with  its  seat 
at  Berne.  The  duties  of  this  bureau  are: 

"  (i)  To  receive  communications  from  any  of 
the  contracting  states,  and  to  transmit  them  to  the 
rest  of  them. 

"  (2)  To  compile  and  publish  information  of  im- 
portance for  international  traffic,  for  which  purpose 
it  may  issue  a  journal. 

"  (3)  To  act  as  a  board  of  arbitration  on  the  ap- 
plication of  the  countries  concerned. 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


"  (4)  To  perform  the  business  preliminaries  con- 
nected with  proposed  changes  in  the  agreement, 
and,  under  certain  circumstances,  to  suggest  the 
meeting  of  a  new  conference. 

"  (5)  To  facilitate  transactions  between  the  rail- 
roads, especially  to  look  after  those  which  have 
been  derelict  in  financial  matters.  After  notice 
has  been  given  by  the  bureau,  the  state  to  which 
the  railroad  belongs  or  by  whose  citizens  it  is 
owned,  can  either  become  responsible  for  the  debts 
of  the  road  or  permit  the  expulsion  of  the  road 
from  international  traffic." 

This  International  Transportation  Union  covers 
a  domain  embracing  nearly  three  millions  of  square 
miles  of  territory  and  two  hundred  and  sixty  mil- 
lions of  people.  Well  may  Dr.  Meyer  say  that  it 
ranks  in  importance  with  the  international  postal, 
telegraph,  and  copyright  unions;  it  far  outranks 
them  all. 

But  though  all  nations  were  united  in  a  world- 
wide system  of  transportation  and  communication, 
and  though  each  nation  contributed  its  full  share 
to  the  support  of  these  united  public  services  both 
on  land  and  sea,  even  such  an  International  Trans- 
portation and  Communication  Union  would  fall  far 
short  of  its  possibilities  of  human  service  so  long  as 
the  tolls  levied  for  the  support  of  these  public  works 
were  determined  by  the  value  of  the  service  ren- 
dered to  the  individual  rather  than  by  the  cost  of 
the  service  to  the  different  governments. 

The  utter  lack  of  scientific  method  in  the  present 


278  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

system  of  determining  transport  tolls  is  almost  in- 
comprehensible. 

Although  the  analogy  between  the  ordinary  busi- 
ness of  the  postal  departments  of  the  nations  and 
the  general  business  of  public  transportation  is 
absolutely  perfect,  no  great  traffic  manager  either 
of  any  private  or  of  any  state  system  of  transporta- 
tion seems  to  realize  it.  No  officer  either  of  any 
railway  or  of  any  state  government  seems  to  under- 
stand that  in  transportation  both  by  railway  and  by 
steamer,  the  cost  of  the  business  is  in  the  machin- 
ery and  in  the  movement  of  the  machine,  not  in 
the  distance  traversed  either  by  persons  or  by  pro- 
duce on  the  machine. 

The  axiom,  so  clearly  stated  by  the  railway 
authority  Wellington,  in  his  Economic  Theory  of 
Railway  Location,  that  a  railway  is  a  public-service 
machine  built  for  the  express  purpose  of  equalizing 
opportunities  for  all  mankind  to  labor  and  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  their  labor,  a  machine,  the  cost  of  run- 
ning which  is  practically  the  same  whatever  the 
distance  a  man  or  his  produce  may  be  carried  upon 
it — this  axiomatic  truth  still  remains  to  be  embodied 
in  law  and  to  be  carried  out  in  practice. 

The  absurdity  of  the  present  system  of  tolls 
levied  by  the  common  carrier  was  perhaps  never 
more  clearly  set  forth  than  in  a  letter  written  by  a 
cotton  manufacturer  of  Manchester,  England,  on 
the  2oth  of  November,  1897,  to  the  Manchester 
Guardian.  It  appears  that  English  ships  were  at 
that  time  charging  nearly  sixty  per  cent,  more  for 


AND  PASSENGER  POST. 


279 


the  carriage  of  English  cottons  from  Liverpool  to 
Shanghai,  China,  than  for  the  transport  of  American 
cottons,  from  New  York  via  Liverpool  to  Shanghai. 

The  rates  were  25^.  6d.  per  ton  from  New  York. 
"  "  "  4os.  "  "  "  Liverpool. 

Including  the  toll  on  the  raw  material  from  New 
York  to  Liverpool,  the  discrimination  against  the 
English  product  was  as  follows  : 


AMERICAN. 

Per  piece. 

ENGLISH. 

Per  piece. 

Difference. 

12 

14 

T1 

lb.  sheetings..  .. 
«         « 

"    drills.....'.'.'.' 

<t. 
1.64 
1.91 
I  QI 

d. 

3-23 
3-75 

37  t» 

d. 

1-59 
1.84 
i  84 

8 

f   jeans  

A.y  A 

I.OQ 

•  /  J 
2  14. 

i  O1 

•  y 

*»**y 

The  letter  closed  with  the  statement  that  this  dis- 
criminating tax  levied  on  English  goods  by  these 
English  common  carriers  amounted  to  7.12  per 
cent,  of  the  wages  of  the  operatives  engaged  in 
making  the  goods.  The  cotton  manufacturers  of 
England  were  then  contemplating  a  five  per  cent, 
reduction  in  the  wages  of  their  hands.  This  man- 
ufacturer showed  that  if  the  English  common  car- 
rier would  serve  his  own  countrymen  on  the  same 
terms  that  he  served  their  rivals,  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  increase  the  wages  of  the  English  cotton 
operatives  by  2.12  per  cent.,  and  at  the  same  time 


28O  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

to  sell  English  cottons  at  Shanghai  at  five  per  cent, 
below  the  then  ruling  prices  at  that  port. 

Early  in  January,  1898,  there  was  a  very  general 
reduction  in  the  wages  of  the  cotton  operatives  of 
New  England  of  from  ten  to  eleven  per  cent.,  and 
it  was  said  that  if  the  cotton  business  of  New  Eng- 
land was  to  continue,  the  share  of  the  operatives  in 
the  value  of  the  goods  they  helped  to  produce 
would  have  to  be  reduced  sooner  or  later  by  at 
least  twenty-five  per  cent.  This  first  cut  in  wages 
was  made  in  the  face  of  an  increased  cost  of  living 
estimated  at  thirty  per  cent.  It  will  hardly  require 
a  twenty-five  per  cent,  reduction  in  their  wages  to 
bring  down  the  New  England  cotton  operative  to 
a  condition  quite  as  pitiable  as  that  of  the  miners 
in  the  anthracite  coal  regions  of  Pennsylvania. 

Would  you  seek  out  the  causes  of  these  evils  ? 
You  will  find  the  chief  of  them  in  the  transport 
taxes  across  custom's  boundaries  and  on  either 
side  of  custom's  boundaries,  taxes  always  levied 
on  the  principle  of  exacting  the  very  last  drop  of 
the  life-blood  of  the  victim. 

Professor  Hadley  says:  "  The  railroad  and  the 
steamship  determine  the  location  of  industries  quite 
as  often  as  the  government."  When  the  govern- 
ment, the  railway,  and  the  steamship  are  combined 
for  the  destruction  of  any  particular  section,  as 
would  seem  to  be  the  case  in  the  present  instance, 
its  doom  must  be  surely  sealed.  The  railroad  is, 
however,  practically  the  one  deciding  factor  in  the 
location  of  modern  industries.  Within  very  large 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  28 1 

limits,  the  railroads  of  this  country  determine  where 
steamers  shall  collect  and  deliver  their  loads.  Com- 
bined with  the  steamships,  as  they  generally  are, 
they  control  the  movements  of  the  people  and  of 
their  produce  both  by  sea  and  by  land.  I  am  told 
that  except  for  the  combination  of  the  railroads 
controlling  the  movements  of  cotton  to  Southern 
ports,  it  would  be  possible  to  get  the  raw  material 
to  the  cotton-mills  at  Fall  River,  Mass.,  at  very 
much  lower  rates  than  are  paid  at  present.  Ves- 
sels not  in  the  combine  cannot  get  cargoes.  Abra- 
ham Hewitt  attributes  the  decay  of  the  heavy  iron 
industries  of  the  east  to  the  costliness  of  getting 
materials  together.  The  chief  factors  in  that  cost 
are  transport  taxes  and  customs  taxes. 

In  February,  1889,  some  five  hundred  of  the  iron- 
masters of  New  England  joined  in  a  memorial  to 
Congress  in  which  they  directly  charged  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  and  its  New  England  allies 
"  with  having  apparently  formed  a  deliberate  plan 
to  destroy  the  iron  and  steel  industries  of  New 
England  with  a  view  to  securing  to  Pennsylvania 
the  manufacture,  and  to  itself — the  Pennsylvania 
road — forever,  the  transportation  of  her  iron  and 
steel  goods.  While  it  —  the  Pennsylvania- New 
England  combination  brings  into  New  England 
manufactured  iron  and  steel  goods  at  comparatively 
low  rates,  and  while  it  carries  back  to  Pittsburgh, 
at  the  same  or  lower  rates,  the  scanty  supply  of 
scrap  iron  and  old  rails  produced  in  New  England, 
and  constituting  almost  the  only  available  supply 


282  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

of  raw  iron  of  the  New  England  mills,  it  imposes  a 
high  freight  charge  upon  the  coke  which  forms  the 
staple  and  only  fuel  for  the  steel  making  and  foun- 
dry work  of  New  England. 

"  The  intention  to  keep  raw  material  scarce  and 
high,  and  to  introduce  manufactured  iron  and 
steel  at  low  rates,  until  under  the  combined  pres- 
sure of  customs  duties  and  discriminating  freight 
rates,  the  New  England  iron  and  steel  industries 
are  killed  off,  is  too  clear  to  be  mistaken." 

And  then  the  memorial  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
surviving  mills  engaged  in  heavy  iron  work  in  New 
England  owed  their  existence  chiefly  to  the  fact 
that  the  manufacturers  of  New  England  "  have 
through  the  compulsion  of  circumstances,  been 
systematically  engaged  in  the  degradation  of  Amer- 
ican labor  in  New  England.  A  skilled  operative  in 
a  New  England  rolling-mill  does  not,  on  an  aver- 
age, receive  one  half  the  pay  that  a  man  similarly 
employed  in  a  Pittsburgh  mill  receives  for  the 
same  work,"  and  yet,  says  this  memorial,  the  only 
cause  for  the  decadence  of  the  iron  industries  of 
New  England  is  the  prevailing  system  of  transport 
taxation. 

As  long  ago  as  1871,  the  Railroad  Commission  of 
Massachusetts,  headed  by  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
Jr.,  issued  the  following  statement  to  the  people: 
"  All  sums  exacted  from  the  community  for  trans- 
portation, whether  of  persons  or  property  constitutes 
an  exaction  in  the  nature  of  a  tax,  just  as  much  a 
tax  as  water  rates  or  the  assessments  on  property 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  283 

or  the  tariff  duties  on  imports.  That  it  is  wholly 
or  in  part  a  necessary  tax,  one  which  can,  at  most, 
only  be  reduced  to  a  certain  point,  but  never  abol- 
ished, this  in  no  degree  affects  the  principle.  IT 
is  STILL  A  TAX.  The  reduction  of  this  tax  to  the 
lowest  possible  amount  paid  for  the  greatest  possi- 
ble service  rendered,  always  observing,  of  course, 
the  precepts  of  good  faith  and  the  conditions 
of  a  sound  railroad  system,  this  must  be  the  great 
object  which  the  Commissioners  retain  always  in 
view." 

And  again  they  say  that  it  is  doubtful  if  this 
transportation  tax  weighs  as  heavily  upon  a  farming 
and  agricultural  region  (like  the  West)  as  it  does 
upon  a  manufacturing  district  as  peculiarly  situated 
as  Massachusetts. 

"It  here  appears  in  every  possible  shape;  it  is 
encountered  at  every  step.  '  It  may  be  safely 
asserted  that  there  is  no  branch  of  Massachusetts 
industry  which  is  not  carried  on  against  competitors 
more  advantageously  located.  This  state  has  few 
natural  advantages;  everything  with  her  depends 
on  the  intelligence  of  her  people  and  the  COST  OF 
TRANSPORTATION.  Every  reduction  of  the  trans- 
portation tax  acts  then  as  a  direct  encouragement 
to  the  industry  of  Massachusetts,  just  as  much  so 
as  if  it  were  a  bounty  or  a  bonus ;  it  is  just  so  much 
weight  taken  off  in  the  race  of  competition.  Such 
is  the  nature  of  THE  TRANSPORTATION  TAX;  it 
next  remains  to  inquire  as  to  its  amount, '  and  the 
Commissioners  estimated  that  in  the  year  1871,  the 


284  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

amount  of  this  tax  was  $13.81  per  head  of  all 
the  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  men,  women,  and 
children,  nearly  seventy  dollars  per  family,  or 
about  as  much  as  all  the  other  taxes  levied  in  the 
state  together.  Taking  a  particular  case,  that  of 
the  Washburn  Company  of  Worcester,  the  Com- 
mission said  that  a  reduction  in  the  transportation 
tax  on  coal  alone,  brought  by  the  Providence  & 
Worcester  and  the  Boston  &  Albany  roads  for  the 
use  of  this  company,  from  $1.65  to  85  cents,  would 
amount  to  a  reduction  in  their  annual  power  tax 
from  $29,700  to  $15,300  a  year,  or  three  per  cent, 
on  its  capital.  This  may  make  all  the  difference 
between  success  and  failure." 

And  yet  these  taxes  still  continue  to  be  levied  by 
private  individuals  who  keep  up  their  toll-gates  at 
every  cross-road  and  (save  to  their  favorites)  allow 
communication  between  one  town  and  another  only 
on  condition  that  the  value  of  each  man's  purse  is 
accurately  measured  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
contents  are  turned  over  to  the  gate-keeper.  This 
statement,  though  not  quite  true  as  to  each  particu- 
lar piece  of  merchandise  or  to  the  individual  travel- 
ler, is  altogether  true  as  to  the  principle  on  which 
the  general  business  is  transacted.  The  tolls  levied 
on  travel  are  actually  higher  in  many  cases  than 
they  were  in  1850,  and  we  have  seen  the  statement 
of  Mr.  George  M.  Mead  of  Boston  to  the  effect 
that  in  some  cases  the  tolls  on  freight  are  fifty  per 
cent,  higher  than  they  were  in  1871. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that,  under  these  conditions, 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  285 

the  whole  world  of  business  and  of  labor  is  in 
chaos  ?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  under  these  condi- 
tions the  sky  is  dark,  the  atmosphere  thick  with 
omens  of  coming  storm  ?  And  yet  the  remedy  for 
these  evils  is  so  simple  that  even  a  little  child  might 
understand  it. 

Let  the  National  Government  assume  its  legiti- 
mate function  as  the  manager  of  the  National  high- 
ways, the  collector  of  the  taxes  levied  for  the 
support  of  these  highways,  and  let  these  taxes  be 
determined  on  the  cost  of  the  service  principle, 
and  the  nation  will  quickly  emerge  from  its  present 
darkness  into  a  marvellous  light. 

Whether  the  substitution  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  for  the  Government  of  the 
United  Railways  is  to  be  quiet  and  peaceful  or 
whether  it  is  to  be  attended  with  lightning  and 
tempest  will  depend  on  the  wisdom  and  the  cour- 
age of  the  men  who  compose  the  National  Council 
at  Washington.  Upon  them  lies  the  responsibility 
of  the  hour. 

If  Congress  passes  the  bill  which  we  have  sug- 
gested, or  if  similar  legislation  be  enacted  before 
the  masses  of  the  people  are  rendered  desperate 
by  unnecessary  suffering,  there  will  be  no  tumult. 
If  the  needed  legislation  be  delayed  too  long,  we 
will  not  answer  for  the  consequences. 

Whatever  happens,  we  have  done  our  best  to 
point  the  way  to  a  prolonged  era  of  happiness  and 
prosperity  for  our  country,  and  not  for  our  country 
only,  but  for  the  world. 


286  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

"  Men,  my  brothers,  Men,  the  workers,  ever  reaping  some- 
thing new  ; 

That  they  have  done  but  the  earnest  of  the  things  that  they 
shall  do ; 

"  For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see, 
Saw  the  vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonders  that  would 
be; 

"  Saw  the  heavens  filled  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic 

sails, 

Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly 
bales ; 

"  Heard  the  heavens  filled  with  shouting,  and  there  rained  a 

ghastly  dew, 
From  the  nation's  airy  navies  grappling  in  the  central  blue  ; 

"  Far  along  the  world- wide  whisper  of  the  south-wind  rush- 
ing warm, 

"  With  the  standards  of  the  peoples  plunging  through  the 
thunder  storm ; 

"  Till  the  war  drum  throbbed  no  longer,  and  the  battle  flags 

were  furl'd 

In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the  World." 

(ALFRED  TENNYSON.) 

CLOSING    NOTE. 

The  New  York  Tribune,  of  Sunday,  December  12, 
1897,  gave  a  glowing  account  of  the  success  of  the 
municipal  tramway  lines  of  Great  Britain  for  the 
preceding  year.  The  Glasgow  lines  were  managed 
so  efficiently  and  economically  that  the  net  profit  on 
the  business  of  the  past  year  was  $416,335  after  all 
interest  charges  on  the  investment  in  tracks  and 
plant  had  been  met.  And  this  followed  a  reduc- 
tion in  fares,  a  shortening  in  the  hours  of  the 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  28? 

operatives  and  an  increase  in  'their  wages.  The 
facilities  of  transit  were  increased  and  cheapened; 
public  comfort  and  convenience  promoted,  and 
the  grievances  of  operatives  removed.  And  what 
occurred  in  Glasgow  occurred  in  the  other  towns 
of  England  where  the  tramways  were  owned  by 
the  people.  In  Leeds  the  annual  profit  was  $59,- 
170.  Municipal  management  was  undertaken  in 
that  city  mainly  for  the  sake  of  redressing  the 
grievances  of  conductors,  engineers,  and  drivers, 
who  were  underpaid  by  the  tramway  companies  and 
compelled  to  work  fourteen  hours  a  day.  Hudders- 
field  has  kept  down  profits  by  unprofitable  exten- 
sions of  the  service  and  by  a  reduction  of  fares, 
but  it  had  a  balance  of  $31,495  to  its  credit. 
Sheffield's  profits  out  of  her  tramways  for  1897 
were  $36,650.  Blackpool,  serving  its  25,000  people 
with  an  electric  railway,  made  a  profit  of  $14,920. 
Plymouth  also  did  a  good  year's  business  on  her 
tramways. 

I  wish  here  to  express  my  acknowledgments  to 
my  friend,  Mr.  Jay  D.  Miller  of  Chicago  for  his 
inestimable  service  in  assisting  me  to  formulate  my 
bill,  and  also  to  the  host  of  others — the  managers 
of  the  New  Haven  Road  among  them — to  whom  I 
am  indebted  for  the  information  which  I  have 
gathered  together  in  this  volume.  If  ever  I  have 
struck  a  blow  at  an  individual,  it  has  been  not  out 
of  malice  but  because  in  him  has  seemed,  at  times, 
to  be  incarnated  the  evils  of  the  system  which  he 
represented. 


288  A    GENERAL  FREIGHT 

THE    LAST    STRAW    UPON    THE    CAMEL'S    BACK. 

The  latest  fiat  of  our  Imperial  Railway  Court 
pools  one  American  railroad  with  another  and  in 
the  process  increases  the  National  Debt  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  $100,000,000  of  3^  per  cent.,  hundred 
year,  paper  made,  gold  promising,  bonds  for  $50,- 
000,000  of  railroad  stock.  In  other  words,  under 
this  railroad  decree,  we,  our  children  and  our 
children's  children  to  the  third  and  four  genera- 
tion are  to  be  saddled  with  the  annual  payment  of 
$1,750,000  in  gold,  on  $50,000,000  in  bonds  that 
represent  to  their  issuers  only  the  cost  of  so  many 
pieces  of  printed  paper  and  at  the  end  of  one  hun- 
dred years,  our  descendants  are  to  be  compelled, 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  if  necessary,  to  give  up 
so  much  of  their  flesh  and  blood  as  may  be  requi- 
site to  transform  these  paper  issues  into  solid  gold. 

The  capital  stock  of  the  controlling  railroad  in 
this  instance  is  $100,000,000.  The  balance  of  the 
railroad  stocks  of  the  United  States  is  something 
over  $5,000,000,000.  With  a  few  more  strokes  of 
the  Imperial  Railway  pen,  these  $5,000,000,000  of 
railway  stock  will  be  transformed  into  $10,000,- 
000,000  of  bonds  ;  the  entire  National  Railway 
System  will  be  pooled  under  one  management  and 
the  National  Debt  of  the  United  States  will  be 
brought  up  to  a  figure  vastly  higher  than  it  was  at 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  total  tax  levied  by  our  private  railway  man- 
agers on  the  people  of  the  United  States  for  the 
payment  of  the  dividends  on  the  outstanding  rail- 


AND  PASSENGER  POST.  289 

road  stocks  of  the  United  States,  in  1896,  was  $87,- 
603,371.  Under  the  impending  imperial  regime 
this  tax  will  be  increased  to  $350,000,000  annu- 
ally ;  this  is  in  solid  gold  and  it  will  be  collected  as 
rigidly  and  as  mercilessly  as  were  ever  the  taxes 
levied  by  the  Emperor  of  Rome  upon  his  subject 
provinces. 

It  is  towards  this  goal  that  things  seem  to  be 
rapidly  tending. 


APPENDIX. 

ONE    MORE   STRAW. 

54TH  CONGRESS  )  CWVATP  $  DOCUMENT 

20  SESSION     \  \         177 

WEIGHING    THE   MAIL    UPON    THE   SEABOARD 
AIR    LINE    IN    1896. 

THIS  document — which  I  have  just  received — is 
such  a  commentary  on  "  Railroading  under  Present 
Conditions,"  and  so  complements  my  work  that  I 
feel  compelled  to  give  a  summary  of  it  here,  with 
the  omission  only  of  proper  names. 

Every  four  years,  the  mail  transported  over  one 
fourth  of  the  railway  system  of  the  United  States 
is  weighed  during  a  period  of  thirty  days,  and  upon 
the  average  weight  thus  determined  depends  the 
compensation  of  the  various  railways  for  the  follow- 
ing four  years.  During  the  quadrennial  weighing 
in  March,  1896,  upon  the  Seaboard  Air  Line, 
whose  Main  Line  extends  from  Portsmouth,  Va., 
to  Atlanta,  Ga.,  there  occurred  the  following 
curious  incidents:  About  three  hundred  sacks  of 
documents  franked  by  Senator  and  Repre- 
sentative    were  sent  to  the  various  station 

290 


APPENDIX.  291 

agents  of  this  company  in  Virginia,  North  Caro- 
lina, South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  ;  the  sacks 
weighed  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  pounds  each;  two,  three,  four,  or  five  sacks 
were  sent  to  an  agent;  in  RAILROAD  MAIL  the  agents 
received  envelopes  containing  slips  of  paper,  or 

labels,  franked  by  Senator and  addressed  to 

various  persons  at  various  offices  in  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina,  a  large  portion  of  the  addresses 
being  RAILROAD  EMPLOYEES  or  postmasters. 

Some  agents  were  furnished  by  railroad  officials 
with  lists  of  addresses  in  North  Carolina  and  Vir- 
ginia. The  division  superintendents  and  road- 
masters  gave  oral  instructions  to  the  agents  under 
them  as  to  pasting  on  labels  or  writing  addresses 
on  the  books  which  were  not  previously  addressed, 

but  tags  of  sacks  were  addressed,  "  All  for " 

(who  is  railroad  agent  at  that  point).  The  books 
were  then  remailed  and  again  transported  over  the 
routes  of  this  company,  to  be  again  weighed. 
Fifteen  sacks  were  delivered  at ,  Va.,  ad- 
dressed in  bulk  to  General  Superintendent  . 

That  night  the  books  were  addressed  in  the  rail- 
road building  by  his  secretary  (Williams)  and  a  di- 
vision superintendent  (Wishnant)  and  remailed  the 
following  morning  to  various  addresses  along  their 

route.     A  newspaper  ( ,  N.  C. , ),  learning 

of  the  transaction,  published  a  short  article  headed 
"  A  Mistake,"  stating  in  substance,  that  a  United 
States  Senator,  in  mailing  documents  to  his  con- 
stituents, had,  by  mistake,  addressed  them  to  station 


2Q2  APPENDIX. 

agents  along  the  Seaboard  Air  Line  Railroad,  to 
be  remailed  to  his  constituents,  etc.  A  division 
superintendent  ( ),  learning  of  the  article,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  town  ( — - — )  and  induced  the  editor 
to  cut  the  item  out  of  every  copy  of  his  paper,  on 
the  ground  that  it  would  hurt  the  road. 

To  protect  the  Government  from  this  attempted 
padding,  the  Department  ordered  the  weighing  to 
be  continued  for  thirty  days  during  April.  The 
railroad  company  then  resorted  to  a  new  scheme  by 
contracting  with  publishers  of  newspapers  for  a 
large  number  of  papers  to  be  sent  over  their 
line  daily  to  addresses  furnished  by  the  com- 
pany. At ,  Va.,  General  Superintendent 

arranged  with    The   to    send    6800    copies 

daily  for  ten  days  and  after  that  2400  daily,  in 
bundles  of  twenty-five  to  each  address,  to  par- 
ties in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  on  the 

Line.      At  ,   N.   C.,   ,   private   secretary 

of ,  arranged  to  have  6000  copies  first  week, 

8000  copies  a  week  afterwards,  of  a  weekly  paper 

( )  to  be  sent  weekly  in  bundles  of  forty-five 

to   each  address,  to  be  sent  over  the  Line 

to  stations  in  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  a  few 

in   North  Carolina.     At ,    Ga.,  ,   private 

secretary  of  Division  Superintendent ,  arranged 

with  the Journal  for  2000  copies  daily,  to  be 

sent  over  the Line  to  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth, 

Va.,  1000  addressed  as  regular  subscribers,  the 
other  1000  as  sample  copies.  Arrangements  were 
also  made  with  the to  send  5600  of  each  Sun- 


APPENDIX.  293 

day  issue  of  The  Constitution  to  addresses  in  Nor- 
folk and  Portsmouth,  Va.,  this  amount  to  be  divided 
up  and  800  copies  sent  each  day,  400  by  morning 
train  and  400  by  night  train.  A  copy  of  each 
Sunday's  paper  is  thirty-four  pages,  and  weighs  a 
little  over  half  a  pound  a  copy.  Norfolk  and 
Portsmouth  city  directories  were  furnished  the 

and to  print  labels  for  mailing  papers  to 

parties  in  those  cities.  Several  of  these  parties  had 
moved  from  those  cities,  had  died,  or  the  addresses 
were  not  known.  Had  this  weighing  been  accepted 

by  the  Department,  the Line  Railroad  would 

have  received  for  the  next  four  years  a  much  larger 
compensation  than  they  were  entitled  to. 

Mr. ,  editor  of  the ,  told  me  he  was 

entirely  in  ignorance  of  the  railroad  company's 
object  in  sending  out  the  papers  or  he  would  not 
have  permitted  them  to  have  purchased  the  papers 
from  his  assistant;  he  stopped  the  fourth  shipment 
of  his  paper,  and  was  very  much  annoyed;  would 
prefer  for  the  matter  not  to  be  made  public. 

Signed,  H.  T.  GREGORY,  Post-Office  Inspector, 
page  27  of  Senate  Document  177. 

The  total  weight  of  the  papers  purchased  by  the 

agents  of  the  Line  and  sent  over  its  line 

during  this  second  attempt  to  make  an  honest  ad- 
justment of  its  mail  compensation  was  20,100 
pounds,  and  in  addition  to  this  there  were  also  sent 
443  pounds  of  franked  documents,  making  the  total 
"  padding  "  20,553  pounds.  (Page  33,  Document 
«77.) 


2Q4  APPENDIX. 

Page  93  of  this  interesting  paper  contains  a  letter 
to  the  Postmaster-General,  from  "One  who  knows," 
dated  N.  Y.  City,  June  19,  1896.  This  letter  goes 
over  practically  the  same  ground  as  the  statement 
made  by  Mr.  Gregory,  but  adds  that  the  business 
was  conducted  "  by  the  general  superintendent  on 
an  order  from  the  vice-president  and  general  man- 
ager. The  division  road-masters  did  nothing  else 
for  several  weeks  but  look  after  this  line  of  busi- 
ness." Postmaster-General  Wilson,  however,  had 
already  at  hand  all  the  evidence  he  needed  of  the 
double  attempt  to  defraud  the  Post-Office  and  as 
early  as  May  25,  1896,  had  directed  the  Attorney- 
General  to  institute  such  proceedings  as  would 
lead  to  the  indictment  of  the  guilty  parties  and,  if 
possible,  to  their  conviction. 

June  23,  1896,  the  Postmaster-General  wrote  to 

the  Rev. ,  editor  of  ,  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  as 

follows : 

"  DEAR  SIR: 

"  The  statement  published  by  the  United  Press 
as  to  the  effort  of  certain  officials  of  the  Seaboard 
Air  Line  to  pad  the  mails  during  the  weighings  on 
that  railroad  and  its  connections  is  amply  sustained 
by  an  investigation  made  by  this  Department,  and 
I  have  placed  the  papers  in  the  hands  of  the  Attor- 
ney-General with  the  request  that  he  shall  proceed 
criminally  against  all  those  engaged  in  this  effort. 

"  The  statement  purporting  to  come  from  the 
general  superintendent  of  that  road,  recently  put 


APPENDIX.  295 

out  in  the  papers,  does  not  meet  the  charges,  and 
you  need  have  no  fear  of  a  libel  suit  for  giving 
currency  to  any  of  the  facts  contained  in  the  state- 
ment given  out  by  the  Department  or  any  proper 
comments  upon  it.  I  have  been  myself  surprised 
at  the  failure  of  the  newspapers  to  hold  up  the 
action  of  the  railroad  people  to  the  merited  con- 
demnation of  the  public. 

"  I  write  you  this,  not  for  publication,  because 
I  do  not  think,  as  head  of  the  Department,  I  ought 
to  go  into  the  press,  but  for  your  own  satisfaction, 
and  in  reply  to  yours  of  the  1 5th  instant. 
"  Very  respectfully, 

"WM.  L.  WILSON, 
"  Postmaster-General." 
— Page  no,  Senate  Document  177. 

The  final  outcome  of  the  matter,  however,  was 
the  virtual  success  of  the  railroad  and  the  defeat 
of  the  Government. 

Dec.  22,  1896,  Attorney-General  Harmon  wrote 
to  the  Postmaster-General  that  he  had  several 
months  before  put  the  case  into  the  hands  of  the 
United  States  Attorney  for  the  Eastern  District  of 
Virginia,  but  he  had  neither  prosecuted  the  case 
nor  reported  upon  it.  He  had  finally  resigned, 
and  the  matter  was  then  in  the  hands  of  his  suc- 
cessor. Careful  investigation  showed  that  there 
could  be  little  doubt  that  a  gross  fraud  had  been 
perpetrated  upon  the  Government,  but  the  laws 
were  insufficient  to  reach  the  criminal. 


296  APPENDIX. 

Jan.  16,  1897,  the  railroad  company  received  the 
comforting  assurance  from  the  Second  Assistant 
Postmaster-General  that  though  they  had  sinned  to 
the  extent  of  sending  on  an  average  909  pounds  of 
illegitimate  matter  through  the  mails,  between 
Weldon  and  Atlanta,  during  the  weighing  period, 
their  increased  compensation  for  the  next  four  years 
would  nevertheless  be  42  per  cent. 

Verily,  "  The  ownership  of  the  highways  ends  in 
the  ownership  of  everything  and  everybody  that 
must  use  the  highways. ' ' 

The  issue  of  the  hour  is, 

The  Government  of  The  United  Railways 

vs. 
The  Government  of  The  United  States. 


INDEX. 


Act,  Interstate  Commerce,  106,  107  ;  proposed  amendment, 
no 

Acworth,  W.  H.,  on  variability  of  American  railway  rates, 
36 ;  makes  cost  of  occupying  otherwise  empty  seat  in 
passenger  train,  one-half  a  cent  for  a  ride  of  410  miles, 
80;  on  parcels  post  of  Great  Eastern  R.  R.,  of  England, 
248 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  a  railway  rate  is  a  tax  ;  high  rates 
ruinous  to  industry,  282-284 

Adams  Express  Co.  pay  T%  of  a  cent  a  pound  to  railroads  for 
a  service  that  costs  Post-office  eight  cents,  241 

Advantages  of  proposed  scheme,  149 

Ainslie,  S.  R.,  Manager  Blue  Island  Line,  says  that  a  uniform 
five-cent  fare  is  more  profitable  than  a  three-cent-a-mile 
fare,  213 

Alexander,  E.  Porter,  railway  manager,  favors  uniform  rates, 
105 

Anarchists,  railways  make,  115,  116 

Anderson,  J.  C.,  Freight  Agent,  N.  Y.,  O.,  &  W.  R.  R.,  de- 
stroys business  Howell  Bros.,  53,  54 

Angeles,  Los,  distance  from  San  Francisco,  400  miles ;  time 
from  San  Francisco,  24  hours,  102 

Anthracite  coal  roads  combine  to  take  $40,000,000  from  con- 
sumers, 115 

Association,  Joint  Traffic,  pooling  reduces  expenses  of  some 
companies,  $150,000  in  switching  alone,  93  ;  rules  with  an 
iron  hand,  101,  114  ;  controls  fifty  railroad  companies  and 
a  thousand  million  dollars  of  capital,  167,  176  ;  makes 
excursion  rates  one  hundred  percent,  higher  in  1896  than 
in  1895,  101 ;  organized  Nov.  19,  1895,  167  ;  opinion  New 
York  World,  166-170;  opinion  Chicago  Tribune,  175- 
179  ;  discriminates  in  passenger  rates,  171  ;  raises  freight 
rates,  170,  183  ;  president  controls  steel  trust,  158;  presi- 
dent places  Association  above  the  National  Government, 
156 

2Q7 


298  INDEX. 

Average,  freight  tax  for  the  average  haul  of  126  miles,  $1.09, 
94  ;  cost  of  stop  of  train,  forty  cents,  74  ;  earnings  actual 
capital  invested  in  American  railway  stocks,  18  per  cent., 
and  on  actual  capital  invested  in  bonds,  4.36  per  cent., 
114  ;  load  American  passenger  trains,  44  persons,  in  1894, 
144  ;  load  Indian  railways,  250  passengers,  136  ;  capacity 
passenger  train  probably  over  500,  144  ;  number  round 
railway  trips  taken  by  Englishmen,  ten,  by  Americans  less 
than  five,  per  year,  135  ;  haul  of  freight  in  Middle  States, 
93.40  miles,  and  average  tax  per  ton  per  haul,  less  than 
64  cents,  210  ;  average  train  represents  $365,000  capital, 
229  ;  average  haul  and  rate  per  haul,  various  railways, 
2ii  ;  average  passenger  train-loads  on  various  roads  and 
effect  on  cost  of  service  per  passenger,  226,  237 


Belgium,  enriched  by  low  railway  rates,  Ireland  impoverished 
by  high  rates,  86 

Belgium,  rates  in,  85 

Bell,  Congressman,  on  sheep  pelts  and  railways,  165 

Bell,  Horace,  on  railway  rates  in  India,  81 

Berlin,  steamer,  unloads  and  loads  in  17  hours,  147 

Berne  made  capital  of  railway  Europe  by  international  con- 
vention, 275 

Bill,  resume  of,  for  extending  Post-Office  over  all  Public 
Transportation,  192-205 

Blanchard,  George  R.,  Rate  Maker  for  Joint  Traffic  Associa- 
tion favors  uniform  rates,  viii,  122,  205  ;  shows  Govern- 
ment of  United  Railways  to  be  far  more  powerful  than 
Government  United  States,  160 ;  acknowledges  Govern- 
ment ownership  to  be  the  only  practical  solution  of  the 
railroad  problem,  xxi,  205,  254 

Blue  Island  Line,  Chicago  &  N.  P.  Road  adopts  uniform  five- 
cent  fare,  212 

Boston  &  Maine  R.  R.  passes,  49,  50,  55  ;  milk  contract,  in 

Boston  Herald,  on  abolishing  traffic  associations,  211  ;  on  evils 
private  ownership,  206 

Bridgeport  pays  corvee,  $400,000,  64 

Brooklyn  Bridge,  low  fares  increase  both  traffic  and  earnings, 
228 

Bryce  on  railway  kings,  37 

Buchanan,  Daniel,  experience  on  Northern  Pacific  R.  R.,  45 

Bush,  S.  P.,  Supt.,  Motive  Power  Penn.,  R.  R.,  west  Pitts- 
burgh, says  there  is  practically  no  difference  in  cost  of 
hauling  loaded  and  empty  cars,  209 


INDEX.  299 


Canadian  Pacific  R.  R.,  uniform  rates,  125 

Car,  electric  motor  weighs  32  tons,  carries  96  passengers, 
makes  324  miles  a  day,  220 

Car,  freight  car  mileage,  forty  per  cent,  empty,  209 

Car,  loaded  freight,  cost  of  haul  on  Soo  Road,  one  cent  a  mile, 
on  Union  Pacific,  two  cents  a  mile,  83 

Cars,  25,000  passenger  cars  on  American  roads,  223  ;  1,200,000 
freight  cars,  224 

Cars,  Government  postal,  would  pay  for  themselves  in  one 
year,  in 

Central,  N.  Y.,  absorbs  Lake  Shore  and  by  railroad  decree  in- 
creases national  debt  $50,000,000,  288  ;  privileged  dealers 
on,  28  ;  enriches  A.  T.  Stewart  by  freight  discrimination, 
30  ;  its  local  business  pays  cost  through  business,  71  ; 
short  distance  passenger  traffic,  in  1897,  seven  times  its 
through  traffic,  236 ;  average  passenger  trip,  about  30 
miles,  236  ;  side  tracks  as  long  as  main  line,  74  ;  fifty 
cents  a  ton  a  profitable  rate  for  440  miles,  Buffalo  to  N. 
Y.,  92  ;  hauls  1800  tons  on  some  trains,  92  ;  adoption  of 
air-brakes  and  block-signals  reduces  hands  on  through 
freight  trains  one-third,  while  doubling  capacity  of  trains, 
92  ;  half  its  stock  water  representing  only  the  speculative 
possibility  of  its  power  to  extort  so  much  taxes,  114;  to 
cut  out  curves  and  shorten  line  would  reduce  power  to  tax 
local  traffic,  71  ;  when  its  power  becomes  supreme  it  will 
give  character  of  postage-stamp  to  its  transport  tax,  105 

Charge  per  haul  per  ton,  various  railways,  on  Michigan  roads 
58  cents  for  an  average  haul,  75.84  miles,  211 

Chicago  Belt  Lines  tax  eastern  traffic  ten  dollars  a  car,  185, 
186 

Chicago  Great  Western  R.  R.,  by  reducing  grades  slightly, 
can  increase  train-load  from  460  to  650  tons  with  no  in- 
crease of  cost  per  haul,  209 

Chicago,  B.  &  Q.  locomotive  makes  495  miles  a  day,  225 

Chicago  Strike,  191 

Chicago  Record  on  uniform  five-cent  fares,  Blue  Island  Line, 

212 

Chicago  Tribune,  on  dangers  private  ownership  railroads,  175 
-179 

Choate,  Joseph  H.,  on  milk  contract,  D.,  L.  &  W.  R.  R., 
with  Westcott,  profits  suspicious,  $52,000  a  year,  52  ;  cost 
service  to  railway,  eight  cents  per  can  per  haul,  118 

Classification  of  freight,  143,  144 

Clergymen  and  passes,  56 


30O  INDEX. 

Cleveland,  Canton  &  Southern  R.  R.,  excursion,  286  miles  for 

75  cents,  profits  enormous,  91 
Cleveland  £  Pittsburgh  Road  charges  55.3  cents  per  ton  per 

haul  of  79.5  miles,  211 

Cohn,  Gustave,  on  government  ownership  R.  Rs.,  Prussia,  254 
Coleman,  John  A.,  "  Fight  of  a  Man  with  a  Railroad,"  policy 

the  N.  H.  Road  to  make  public  afraid  to  fight  for  its 

rights,  60 

Colony,  Old,  R.  R.  refuses  to  carry  the  mails,  65 
Colorado  Fuel  &  Iron  Co.   pays  freight  on  iron  bars  down 

grade,  1559  miles,  Pueblo  to  San  Francisco,  3^  times  the 

rate  over  the  mountains  3331  miles  N.  Y.  to  S.  F.,  165 
Cooley,  Judge,  favors  uniform  rates,  xiii 
Cooper,  R.  A.,  on  Free  Railway  Travel,  134 
Cost  of  carrying  passenger  in  seat  otherwise  empty,  one  cent 

for  ride  410  miles,  80 

Cost  of  service,  xviii-xxi,  5,  21-25,  76-79.  118,  128 
Cost  of  stop  of  average  train,  forty  cents,  74 
Cost  per  passenger  mile  various  roads,  on  Genesse  Road,  67^ 

cents  per  mile,  on  N.  H.  Road,  1.305  cents,  237 
Cost  to  railroad  often  greater  for  a  short  than  for  a  long  haul, 

22,  23,  98,  99 

Courant,  Hartford,  on  result  low  fares  third-rail  electrics,  218 
Crockery,  English,  shipped  from  Liverpool  to  Denver,  Col., 

for  31  cents  per  hundred  less  than   American   crockery 

from  Trenton,  N.  J.,  165 

D 

Davies,  Turner  &  Co.,  express  rates,   New  York  to  London, 

245 
Debt  of  Railroad  Government  seven  times  that  of  National 

Government,  160 

Deficit,  postal  due  to  high  railway  charges,  5-7,  66,  67 
Delaware,  Lackawana  &  Western  R.  R.,  milk  contract  with 

Westcott,  52  ;  favor  uniform  rate  on  milk,  ix 
Demurrage,  wasteful  of  car  equipment,   94,   145-148  ;  under 

bill  but  eight  hours,  204 
Denver,  crockery  carried  from  Liverpool  for  less  than  from 

Trenton,  N.  J.,  165,  166 
Depew,    Chauncey  M.,  trusts  built  up  by  railroads,  27-31  ; 

laments  decay  of  small  towns,  72  ;    policy,    as    absolute 

ruler  of  U.  S.,  139  ;  railway  rates  should  have  character 

of  postage-stamp,  105,  106 

Docwra,  Wm.,  establishes  Penny  Post  in  London  in  1683,  9 
Dunster,  Henry  P.,  on  a  parcels  post,  95 


INDEX.  3OI 


Earnings,  present  passenger  equipment  of  U.  S.,  under  pro- 
posed scheme,  probably  over  $1,000,000,000  a  year,  233  ; 
of  freight  equipment  as  much  more,  148 

East  India  Railway  fares,  81-88 

Economic  Journal  on  success  Prussian  railroads,  254 

Electricity  on  standard  railroads,  216-225 

Employees  on  American  railroads,  cheapest  on  earth,  137 

Engineering  Magazine  on  success,  zone  system  of  Hungary, 
227 

England,  private  ownership  of  railroads  a  great  evil,  Lord 
Macaulay,  257  ;  reasons  for  continuance,  258  ;  iron  indus- 
try, much  hampered  by  high  rates,  98 

English  ships  illustrate  absurd  system  of  transport  rates, 
rates  on  cotton  goods  from  New  York,  via  Liverpool  to 
Shanghai  one-third  less  than  from  Liverpool  to  Shanghai, 
279 

"  Equality  of  Opportunity,"  Article  in   Arena,  Dec.,  1895, 

Equipment  railroads,  229 

Evening  Post,  New  York,  on  steel  trust,  157 

Export  and  import  rates,  32-34,  165,  179-184 

Express,  Adams,  rates  of,  243  ;  pays  railroads  forty  per  cent, 
receipts,  241 

Express  companies,  rates  exorbitant  and  uncertain,  18,  19, 
1 20  ;  character  of,  243,  244  ;  carry  second-class  matter  for 
one  cent  a  pound,  241  ;  rates,  New  York  to  London,  in 
loo-pound  parcels,  2^  cents  per  pound,  245 


Fall  River  cotton  industry  imperilled  by  high  freight  rates, 
280,  281 

Fares,  Railway,  1850-1896,  N.  Y.,  N.  H.,  &  H.  R.  R.,  41  ; 
Indian  railways,  81,  133  ;  Belgian  railways,  85  ;  Trunk 
Line  war,  87  ;  English  railway  war,  1865,  1855,  89,  90; 
excursion  in  Ohio,  1895,  91,  144  ;  low  fares  refused,  101  ; 
on  Southern  Pacific  road,  six  cents  a  mile,  102  ;  on  London 
&  Northwestern  of  England,  133-136;  Hungarian  rail- 
ways, 126,  227  ;  Canadian  Pacific,  125  ;  Russian  railways, 
84;  third-class,  support  railways,  131-133;  first-class  do 
not  pay  cost,  133,  134  ;  influence  low  fares  on  Manhattan 
elevated  road,  127 ;  commuters  of  consolidated  road, 
136  ;  Savannah  electric,  one  cent  per  trip  profitable,  140; 
Blue  Island  uniform  five-cent  fares,  very  profitable,  213  ; 
Brooklyn  Bridge,  low  fares  increase  both  traffic  and  earn- 


3O2  INDEX. 

Fares,  Railway  (Continued], 

ings,  228  ;  Chicago  &  Northwestern,  $1.00  for  round  trip, 
174  miles  ;  S.  R.  Ainslie  R.  R.  Manager,  says  a  uniform 
five-cent  fare  is  more  profitable  than  a  three-cent-a-mile 
fare,  213  ;  Col.  H.  N.  Heft,  of  New  Haven  road,  favors 
uniform  fares,  220  ;  high  American  fares  deprive  masses 
of  use  of  railroads,  result  in  empty  cars,  unprofitable 
business,  226,  227,  236,  237  ;  H.  G.  Prout  finds  American 
fares  much  higher  than  English,  234 ;  London  County 
Council  finds  workingmen's  fares  on  English  private  roads 
78  percent,  higher  than  on  state  roads  of  Continent,  235  ; 
third-rail  electrics,  New  England  road's  ten-cent  fare 
for  nine-mile  trip  quadruples  the  traffic,  doubles  the  earn- 
ings of  old  23-cent  fare,  226  ;  Nantasket  Beach  electrics 
reduce  fares  from  28  cents  to  ten  cents  triple  traffic  and 
largely  increase  earnings,  221  ;  low  fares  on  Great  East- 
ern Railway  of  England  very  profitable,  135 

Fares,  proposed  bill,  196-201  ;  argument  for,  212-238 

Fawcett,  Postmaster-General  of  England,  author  of  parcels 
post,  12  ;"  Fight  of  a  Man  with  a  Railroad,"  59,  60 

Findlay,  Sir  George,  manager  London  and  Northwestern  R. 
R.,  on  the  parcels  post  of  England,  13 

Fink,  Albert  J.,  cost  of  long  haul  less  than  of  short  haul,  98, 
100 

Fitchburgh  R.  R.  milk  contract,  in 

Freight  Bureau  cases,  183 

Freight  cars,  number  in  the  U.  S.,  about  1,200,000,223,224; 
cost  of  haul  loaded  car  on  Soo  Road  one  cent  a  mile,  on 
Union  Pacific,  two  cents,  83  ;  cost  of  haul  the  same 
whether  full  or  empty,  209  ;  forty  per  cent,  of  mileage 
of  freight  cars,  empty,  209  ;  of  Middle  States,  earning 
less  than  $6.40  per  haul  of  loaded  cars  in  1896,  earn 
nearly  5  per  cent,  on  capitalization  of  $82,000  per  mile  of 
road,  210;  loss  to  railroads  from  use  private  cars,  $30,000,- 
ooo  a  year,  146 

Freight  cars,  substitution  of  steel  for  wood,  will  make  a 
possible  saving  in  haul  of  dead  weight  alone  of  $31,250,000 
a  year,  212  ;  loss  by  demurrage  enormous,  146  ;  waste  of 
capital  in  misused  equipment,  $124,000,000,  146  ;  in  1894, 
earned  less  than  $1.90  a  day,  145 

Freight  cars,  through  cars  carry  three  times  the  load,  way  cars, 
98  ;  average  car  does  but  12  days'  full  work  in  a  year,  95 

Freight  convention  of  European  countries  makes  Berne 
capital  of  railway  Europe,  275 

Freight  discriminations,  effect  of,  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  27- 
30  ;  Bryce,  the  historian,  37  ;  A.  B.  Stickney,  railroad 


INDEX.  303 

manager,  36  ;  W.  H.  Acworth.  36  ;  Interstate  Commerce 
Commisson,  184  ;  James  T.  Wait,  161  ;  New  York  World, 
167-169;  Chicago  Tribune,  175-178  ;  Readville  case,  107 

Freight  discriminations  in  favor  of  one  section  against  another, 
George  J.  Kindel,  on  Colorado  cases,  165,  166  ;  George 
Rice  on  Oil  Trust,  173,  174  ;  New  England  iron  masters, 
281-283  ;  Minneapolis  against  New  York  State  by  N.  Y. 
roads,  N.  Y.  Evening  Post,  35  ;  case,  Colorado  Iron 
and  Fuel  Co.,  165  ;  California  fruits,  Van  Oss,  101 

Freight  discriminations  in  favor  privileged  individuals,  Swift 
and  Co.,  29;  A.  T.  Stewart,  30;  Statement  Hepburn 
Committee,  30,  31  ;  Statement  Springfield  Republican^ 
116, 117 

Freight  discriminations  in  favor  of  foreigner  against  citizen, 
legalized  in  England  by  charter  Stockton  and  Darling- 
ton Road,  32 ;  in  United  States  by  Supreme  Court 
decision  in  Texas  and  Pacific  case,  34  ;  common  in  Europe, 
34,  35  I  widely  adopted  in  United  States,  statement  Ikert, 
Ohio,  33  ;  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  179,  183 

Freight  rates  proposed  bill,  203,  204  ;   argument  for,  205-212 

Freight  traffic,  through  traffic  but  an  incident  of  railroad 
business,  way  traffic  the  Penn.  Road  ten  times  the  through 
traffic,  100 

Freight  trains,  through  trains  on  the  Penn.  haul  1,350  tons, 
on  the  new  N.  Y.  Central  1800  tons  ;  ave.  trains  New 
Haven  Road,  about  143  tons,  98,  99  ;  at  50  cents. a  ton. 
Central's  iSoo-ton  trains  on  trip  Buffalo  to  N.  Y.  would 
earn  profit  of  $300,92  ;  paying  load  may  be  increased  20 
per  cent.,  with  no  increase  of  gross  weight,  93 

Frewen-Moreton,  on  effect  low  uniform  fares,  87 


Gait,  Wm.,  on  low  English  fares,  90  ;  favors  uniform  rates, 

119 
Gazette,  Railroad,  on  ownership  New  England  by  railroad,  38  ; 

on  cost  haul  in  heavy  freight  trains,  92  ;  on  refusal  ex- 
cursion rates,  101 
Genesee  and  Wyoming  Valley  road,  cost  per  passenger  mile, 

67^  cents,  237 
German  Empire,  Committee  of,  on  government  ownership, 

254  ;  effects  of  government  ownership,  254,  255  ;  parcels 

post,  14 
German  railroads  managed  as  a  uniform  network  in  interest 

general  traffic,  264,  265 


304  INDEX. 

Gorman,    Senator,    on    railway  extortion    the   cause    postal 

deficiences,  239 
Gowen,  Franklin  B.,  on  gifts  to  railway  favorites,  on  one  trunk 

line,  $100,000,000  in  course  of  twenty  years,  49 
Grades  often  cost  more  than  distance,  73  ;  slight  reduction  on 

Chicago  Great   Western  will   allow  increase  train-load 

from  460  to  650  tons  with  no  increase  in  cost  of  haul,  209 
Great  Eastern  Railway,  parcels  post,  96,  97,  246-248  ;  low  fares 

for  workmen,  135 
Grierson,  A.  J.,  General  Manager,  Great  Western  Railway, 

' '  The  ideal  system  of  railway  rates  will  be  based  on 

postal  principle,"  119 
Grouping  of  station  with  uniform  rates  growing  rapidly,  120- 

128,  206 

H 

Hadley,  Prof.,  cost  of  haul  train-load  600  tons,  where  good 
canal  can  run  from  30  to  40  cents  a  mile,  78  ;  railroads 
locate  industries,  280 

Haines,  President,  American  Railway  Association,  mileage 
basis  of  rates  fallacious,  misleading,  untrue,  69 

Harper's  Weekly,  advocates  free  rural  delivery  the  mails,  249 

Hartford,  capital.  Conn.,  workmen  hindered  by  railroad  from 
earning  a  living  in  New  Britain  shops,  214 

Heft,  Col.  H.  N.,  of  New  Haven  Road  learns  importance  of 
uniform  rates  from  street-railway  experience,  220 ; 
advocates  use  of  electricity  on  standard  railroad,  221 

Henry,  John  C.,  enormous  economies  possible  from  use 
electricity  on  railroad,  Florence  to  Cripple  Creek,  Col., 
224 

Hepburn  Committee  investigation,  30 

Herald,  N.   Y.,  on  coal  trust,  63 

High  fares  ruinous  to  passenger  business,  214 

High  freight  rates,  cause  stagnant  industry,  German  opinion, 
272  ;  English  opinion,  98  ;  American  opinion,  167,  177  ; 
Charles  Francis  Adams  as  to  effect  in  Mass.,  282,  283, 
opinion,  New  England  iron  masters,  281  ;  cause 
Pittsburgh  strike,  60 ;  depress  New  Jersey  agriculture 
$10,000,000  a  year,  58  ;  effect  on  South  Carolina,  43  ; 
effect  on  California,  101,  102  ;  rob  Connecticut  farmer, 
40;  ruined  farmers  in  state  of  Washington,  45,  46 

High  speed  more  profitable  than  low  speed,  82 

Hill,  Sir  Rowland,  1-4,  12,  22,  23 

Holland,  demurrage  limit,  eight  hours,  142 

Horse-power,  Californians  give  up  railway  for,  102 


INDEX.  305 


Howell,  Bros.,  ruined  by  railway,  53 
Hungary,  railway  rates,  126 


Ikert,  of  Ohio  on  freight  discriminations  in  favor  foreigners, 

33 

India,  railway  fares,  81-83,  133 

Ingalls,  M.E.,  R.  R.  Manager,  on  railway  lawlessness,  163 
International  Freight  Convention,  Europe,  1880,  275-277 
International  Parcels  Post  Convention,  1880,  12-14 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  in  1887  decides  milk  case 
in  favor  of  uniform  rates  as  best  possible  system  for  all, 
viii,  121,  122  ;  in  1897,  opposes  uniform  rates  as  not  "  pro- 
tecting "    nearby  producer  in  control  home  market,  xii, 
xviii ;  comparison  through  and  way  traffic,  100  ;  Report 
on  condition  railway  affairs  in  1897,  179-186  ;  Report  of, 
1895  and  1897,  as  to  value  of  railroads,  etc.,  229,  231 
Interstate  Commerce  Committee  of  Congress,  speech  of  C.  M. 

Depew  before,  in  1893,  27,  105,  139 
Ireland  ruined  by  high  transport  charges,  47,  86 

J 

Jerome  Cotton  case,  as  cotton  goes  down  rates  go  up,  164 
Johnson,  Cave,  Postmaster-General  on  railway  extortion,  1845, 

6 

Joint  Traffic  Association,  see  Association 
Journal  of  Commerce,  says  Traffic  Association  rules  business 

with  iron  hand,  101 

K 

Kasson,  John,  projector  International  Post,  12 
Kindel,  George  J.,  on  freight  discriminations,  freight  Liver- 
pool to  Denver,  $1.12  per  100,  Trenton,  N.  J.,  to  Denver, 
$1.53  per  100,  166 


Le  Fevre,  Shaw,  Postmaster-General,  England,  on  a  parcels 

post,  1 8 

Legal  administration  Prussian  roads,  263-266 
Legislature,   Connecticut,  business  of,  says  R.R.   official,  to 

guarantee  railroad  dividends,  216 
Lennep,  Rhenish  City,  argument  in  favor  low  rates,  272 


306  INDEX. 

Letter  and  parcel  rates,  of  my  bill,  201,  202;  argument  for, 
238-250 

Lewins,  William,  author,  Her  Majesty's  Mails,  5 

Lloyd,  Henry  D.,  author  Wealth  vs.  Commonwealth,  "Owner- 
ship of  the  highways  ends  in  the  ownership  of  every- 
thing and  everybody  that  must  use  the  highways,"  157 

Local  rates  much  higher  than  through  rates,  70  ;  business 
much  greater  than  through  business,  100 ;  service  much 
poorer  than  through  service,  70 

Local-traffic  office,  duty  in  Prussia,  266 

London  County  Council,  English  workmen's  fares  78  per  cent, 
higher  than  continental  fares,  234,  235 

London  Spectator  on  parcels  post,  17 

Loud,  Congressman,  favors  express  companies  at  expense  Post- 
office,  240 

Louisville  &  Nashville  R.R.,  5.11  cars  in  a  passenger  train, 
less  than  ten  passengers  in  a  car,  236 

Louth,  a  town  twenty-five  miles  from  London,  22 

M 

Macaulay,  Lord,  on  error  of  England  in  allowing  private 
ownership  of  railroads,  257 

McConnell,  Supt.,  motive  power  Union  Pacific  Road,  on  cost- 
moving  freight,  two  cents  per  mile  per  loaded  car,  83 

Mail  and  Express  of  N.  Y.  on  power  of  Joint  Traffic  Associ- 
ation, 159 

Mail  railroad  transport,  possible  saving  under  Government 
ownership,  over  $20,000,000  a  year,  242 

Manchester  Guardian,  absurdity  of  present  system  transport 
rates,  278 

Manhattan  Elevated  Road,  effect  of  stops,  74  ;  effect  of  low, 
uniform  rates,  127 

Massachusetts,  manufactures  oppressed  by  railroads,  280,  281 

Mead,  George  M.,  freight  rates  on  consolidated  road  20  per 
cent,  higher  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  207 

Mellen,  General  Freight  Agent,  on  policy  consolidated  road, 
40 

Merchants'  Excursion,  N.  Y.,  171 

Meyer,  B.  H.,  on  Prussian  R.R.  Administration,  263-277 

Mileage  basis,  rates  fallacious,  misleading,  untrue,  69  ;  causes 
waste  in  building  new  lines,  and  prevents  straightening 
old  lines,  70,  71 

Mileage,  freight  cars  40  per  cent.,  empty,  209 

Milk  cans,  R.R.  rates  on,  -£%  R.R.  rates  on  mail  bags,  244,  245 

Milk  case,  rates  uniform  up  to  330  miles,  viii,  xii,  121  ;  Con- 
tractor Westcott's  profits  $52,000  a  year,  52-54,  245 


INDEX.  307 

Milk  contracts,  Fitchburg,  B.  &  M.  roads,  in 

Minister  Public  Works,  the  chief  R.R.  official  of  Prussia,  263 

Mississippi   Valley    Medical    Association,   express  companies 

carry  second-class  matter  to,  for  i  cent  a  pound,  241 
Monaghan,  Consul,  on  marvellous  success  government  owner- 
ship railroads  in  Prussia,  255 
Money,  railroads  may  be  paid  for  in  orders  on  Government  for 

railroad  services,  these  orders,  the  best  money,  251-253 
Morrison,  Wm.  E.,  as  member  I.  C.  C.,  in  1887,  opposed  de- 
cision in   milk  case  in  favor  of  uniform  rates  ;  decision 
reversed  under  his  chairmanship  in  1897,  because  it  de- 
prived nearby  producer  of  monopoly  of  home  market,  xiii 

N 

Nantasket  Beach  Line,  uniform  fares  profitable,  221 

Newcomb,  H.  B.,  average  freight  car  does  but  twelve  full 
days'  work  in  a  year,  95 

New  England  R.R.,  high  fares  ruinous,  low  fares,  high  profits, 
189,  213-220,  225  ;  contract  with  Adams  Express  Co., 
241 

New  Haven  Register  on  "  Third-Rail  Prospects,"  222,  223 

New  Jersey  agriculture,  loses  $10,000,000  a  year  through  high 
local  rates,  58,  207 

New  York  Central,  see  Central 

N.  Y.,  N.  H.,  &  H.  R.R.,  owns  southern  New  England,  39, 
187  ;  power  terrible  to  public,  58-60,  64,  218  ;  local  ser- 
vice very  poor,  70  ;  parcel  rates  absurd,  248,  249  ;  freight 
rates  exorbitant,  40,  206,  281,  284,  grouped  rates,  124; 
proposed  uniform  rates,  129-131  ;  its  policy  to  prevent 
men  living  in  one  town  and  working  in  another,  214; 
compelled  by  trolley  competition  to  apply  electricity  and 
reduce  local  fares  over  fifty  per  cent. ,  finds  traffic  quad- 
rupled and  earnings  more  than  doubled,  213-223 

N.   Y.  Times  on  "  Board  of  Control,"  170 

N.  Y.  Tribune  on  success  public  ownership  tramway  lines, 
286 

N.  V.  World  on  Joint  Traffic  Association,  166-169  ;  on  Oil 
Trust,  175 

North  American  Review,  on  railway  discriminations,   161 

O 

Oss,  Van,  author  American  Railroads  as  Investments,  on 
fraudulent  issues  of  stock,  passes,  57-62  ;  actual  invest- 
ments in  stocks  pay  18  per  cent.,  actual  investments  in 


308  INDEX. 

bonds,  4.36  per  cent.,  62  ;  on  destructive  rates,  S.   P.  R. 
R.,  101 
Outlook,  The,  on  Swiss  purchase  of  railways,  256,  257 


Packet  service  of  England,  curious  things  sent,  9 

Palfrey,  Congressman,  1849,  on  benefits  cheap  postage,  8,  259 

Parcels  on  English  railways,  rate  2O-pound  parcels,  T4^  a  cent 

a  pound,  95-97,  246-248  ;  on  N.  H.  Road,  249 
Paris,  steamer,  loads  and  unloads  in  less  than  three  days,  147, 

N.  E.  freight  car  allowed  eight  days,  94 

Passenger  rates,  U.  S.,  high,  40  ;  local  service  poor,  70  ;  traffic 
pooled,  result  business  ruined,  masses  cannot  travel,   188, 
214,  226,  236  ;  an  average  rate  10  cents  a  round  trip  all 
the  ordinary  man  can  bear,  199,  200 
Passenger  trains,  average  loads,  144,  226,  237 
Passes,  B.  &  M.  R.R.,  49,  50,  55  ;  Penn.  R.R.,  56,  57,  West- 
ern roads,  57 

Patronage  R.R.  kings  dangerous,  153 

Peabody,  James,  editor  R.R.  Review,  uniform  rates  a  natural 
sequence,  government  ownership  railroads,  208  ;  railroad- 
ing under  existing  conditions  (high  fares)  passenger  busi- 
ness ruined,  188,  227  ;  on  railways  cheating  Post-office, 
61 

Pennsylvania  R.R.  and  clergymen,  57 
Penny  Post,   1837,  I  ;  1683,  9  ;  proposed,  201,  202 
Pooling,   effects  of,   under  private  management,  country  en- 
slaved, 26-40,  158-187,  281,  283  ;  on  way  freight  traffic, 
40-46,  70,  189,  206  ;  on  passenger  service,  see  passenger 
rates  ;  under  public  management,  natural  and  profitable, 
148-154,  205,  208-212,  232,  233,  242,  250,  254,  261,  262 
Postal  matter,  proper  classification,  17,  196,  201-204 
Postal  scheme  for  Consolidated  road,  129  ;  general  application, 
141,   143,    190-205  ;  adoption  of,  will  kill  trusts,  restore 
prosperity,  149,  151,  259-262,  285 
Postal  system,  principles  of,  21 

Post-office,  railway  service  compared  with  service  rendered 
milk  contractors  and  express  companies,  68,  243-245  ; 
cheated  by  railways,  61,  240 

Public  ownership  a  success,  85,  126,  127,  254,  255,  265,  287 
Pullman  travellers  transported  at  expense  of  the  poor,  133 

R 

"  Railroading  under  Present  Conditions,"  188,  226,  227,  236, 
237 


INDEX.  309 

Railway  Age  reports  capitalist  as  practically  absolute  in  de- 
termining transport  taxes,  161 

Railway  Government  compared  with  National  Government, 
160 

Railway  lawlessness,  162,  182,  183 

Railway  locomotives  haul  twice  loads  of  five  years  ago  and 
with  fewer  hands,  137,  164 

Railways,  London  to  Reading,  Eng.,  for  one  and  one-half 
years  carried  passengers  the  round  trip,  134  miles,  for 
75  cents  first-class,  50  cents  second-class,  with  no  loss  to 
stockholders,  89 

Railways  supported  by  ordinary  travel,  high-class  travel  un- 
profitable, 133-135 

Rates,  export  and  import,  33-35,  179-184  ;  Stockton  &  Dar- 
lington charter  allows  through  rates  to  be  lower  than 
local  rates,  32;  variable,  31;  lower  than  local,  every- 
where, 34;  high,  40-46,  163-166,  206,  281-284;  group- 
ing of,  universal,  121-127,  206  ;  discriminating,  27-32, 
101,  107,  116,  162,  165,  174,  184,  281 

Readville  case,  107 

Republican,  Springfield,  on  anarchists,  115 

Review,  Railway,  on  railways  cheating  postal  department,  61 ; 
uniform  rates  a  natural  sequence,  Government  ownership, 
208  ;  railroading  under  existing  conditions,  high  fares, 
poor  business,  189,  227 

Revolution  impending,  63,  64,  285 

Rice,  George,  of  Marietta,  Ohio,  on  Oil  Trust  and  discrim- 
inations, 172-175 

Richards  &  Co.,  C.  B.  express  rates  N.  Y.  to  London,  245 

Riots  at  Pittsburgh  due  to  railway  restrictions  on  business,  60 

Russia,  fares  in,  84 


Scalping — tickets  sold  brokers  by  R.  R.  agents,  183 

Seats  occupied  on  American  trains,  one  in  six,  236 

Snow,  W.  M.,  of  Boston,  condemns  transport  policy  N.  E. 
roads,  206 

South  Carolina  farmers  ruined  by  high  rates,  43 

Sparks  used  for  fuel  by  N.  H.  road,  222 

Spectator,  London,  on  parcels  post,  17 

Sperry,  N.  D.,  of  Conn.,  introduces  postal  bill  in  Congress, 
191 

Stickney,  A.  B.,  Railway  Pres.,  on  trusts,  27  ;  on  discriminat- 
ing taxes,  36  ;  on  anarchists,  115 

Stock,  railway,  fraudulent  issues,  62  ;  Lake  Shore  Road,  288 


310  INDEX. 

Stops  of  trains  cost  forty  cents  each,  74 
Straw,  last  on  camel's  back,  288 
Swift  &  Co. ,  indicted  for  receiving  rebates,  29 
Switzerland  votes  to  purchase  railroads,  256 
Supreme  Court  decisions  against  common  interest,  33,  34, 179- 
184,  187 


Taxes,  railway  rates  are,  283,  284 

Terminal  expenses,  75 

Terminals  have  lower  rates  than  intermediate   stations,  32, 

107,  165,  184 

Texas  &  Pacific  case,  33,  179 
Third-rail  electrics,  218-223,  225,  232 
Times,  Hartford,  on  railway  government  of  New  England, 

37 

Times,  JV.   Y.,  on  Board  of  Control,  170 

Transcontinental  and  way  traffic,  proportions  of,  100 

Treaty,  international  freight,  Europe,  275-277 

Tribune,  IV.  Y. ,  on  success  public  ownership  English  tram- 
ways, 287 

Trip,  average,  99,  136,  140 

Trips,  per  capita,  per  year,  Eng.,  U.  S.,  135 

Troy  case,  decision  Supreme  Court  gave  railroads  absolute 
power  over  business  between  terminals,  184,  187 

Trumbull,  "  The  Highway  a  Symbol  of  Government,"  156 

Trust,  oil,  172-175 

Trust,  railway,  167 

U 

Uniform  rates,  adopted  within  wide  limits  at  the  first  organiza- 
tion of  the  Post-office  by  James  II.,  of  England,  rejected 
when  Post-office  became  an  instrument  of  taxation,  in- 
stead of  a  public  service,  1-3  ;  re-adopted  under  Rowland 
Hill  in  1889,  3-4  ;  argument  for,  5,  8,  22-24,  257-262  ; 
application  of  principle  to  parcels  by  post-offices,  9-15  ; 
to  parcels  by  Great  Eastern  Railway  in  1896,  97,  246- 
248  ;  to  milk  cans  and  bottles  on  certain  Am.  roads,  £ 
to  \  a  cent  a  pound,  121-123,  244-245  I  to  second-class 
matter  by  express  companies,  241  ;  application  to  general 
railroad  traffic  suggested  by  C.  N.  Yeomans,  formerly 
President  New  Haven  &  Northampton  R.  R.,  119; 
favored  by  English  writers,  R.  Brandon,  Wm.  Gait,  A. 
J.  Williams,  Geo.  Waring,  and  by  the  English  Ry. 
Manager  A.  J.  Grierson,  119,  143  ;  favored  by  Am. 


INDEX.  311 

Uniform  rates  (Continued). 

R.  R.  writers,  A.  M.  Wellington,  vii,  72,  201  ;  E. 
Porter  Alexander,  105  ;  James  Peabody,  editor  R.  R. 
Review,  207,  208  ;  principle  agreed  to  by  officers  Joint 
Traffic  Association,  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  106  ;  Geo.  R. 
Blanchard,  viii,  122  ;  also  by  R.  R.  Manager  H.  N. 
Heft,  of  N.  H.  road,  221  ;  by  lawyers,  Judge  Cooley, 
viii,  xiii,  121  ;  Rogers,  Locke  &  Milburn,  of  D., 
L.  &W.  R.  R.,  ix,  123;  and  in  1887  by  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  viii,  121-123  ;  principle  of, 
almost  universally  adopted  on  tramway  lines,  120,  221  ; 
success  magical  on  Manhattan  Elevated  Road,  127  ;  long 
applied  in  freight  traffic,  121-126,  180,  181,  206  ;  applied 
to  passenger  traffic  widely  in  Hungary,  1889,  I27  >  aP- 
plied  to  local  passenger  traffic,  on  Blue  Island  Line, 
Chicago  &  N.  P.  R.  R.,  in  1896,  uniform  five-cent  fare 
20  miles,  212  ;  on  Nantasket  Beach  Line,  N.  H.  R.  R. 
in  1895,  221  ;  argument  for  general  application  under 
post-office,  20-25,  141-153,  and  Chapter  V 


Value  of  service,  differs  from  cost  of  service,  23,  259,  260 
Vilas,  Postmaster-General,  on  imoortance  government  owner- 
ship of  postal  cars,  65-67 

W 

Wait,  James  T..  on  railway  discriminations,  161 

Walker,  Aidace  F.,  says  railway  managers  waste  over  $30,- 
000,000  in  hiring  private  cars  and  do  not  use  their  own, 
146 

Wanamaker,  Postmaster-General,  on  one-cent  letter  postage, 
16  ;  average  haul  mail  bags,  442  miles,  240 

Waring,  Geo.,  author  State  Ownership  of  Railways,  sup- 
ports uniform  rates,  119  ;  on  Belgium  and  Ireland,  86 

Wellington,  Arthur  M.,  author  Economic  Theory  of  Railway 
Location,  supports  uniform  rates,  vii,  72,  201  ;  on 
curves,  grades,  stops,  etc.,  71,  73,  78 

Westminster  Review,  on  political  influence  railroad  monopo- 
lies, 58 

Wheatly,  car-accountant,  waste  in  misused  car  equipment 
costs  over  $15,000,000  ;  annually,  146 

Williams,  A.  J.,  author  State  Appropriation  of  Railways,  on 
uniform  rates  and  classification  of  freight,  119,  143 


312  INDEX. 

Wilson,  Consul,  on  workingmen's  trains  of  Belgium,  85 
Wilson,  Postmaster-General,  weight  of  mails  in  1895,  234,000 

tons,  20  ;  a  one-cent  letter  rate  very  profitable,  238 
Workingmen's  trains,  85,  135,  234,  235 
Wycliffe,   Postmaster-General,  on  railway  extortion  and  the 

Post-office,  1843,  6 


Yale  Review,  on  earnings  Mass,  farmers,  199  ;    on  Pennsyl- 
vania riots,  1897,  200 

Z 

Zone  of  Necessity,  197-201 
Zone  Tariff  of  Hungary,  126,  127 


Economics. 


Hadley's   Economics. 

An  Account  of  the  Relations  between  Private  Property 
and  Public  Welfare.  By  ARTHUR  TWINING  HAD- 
LEY,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,  in  Yale  Uni- 
versity. 8°,  $2.50  net. 

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interpretation." — American  Journal  of  Sociology. 

The  Bargain  Theory  of  Wages. 

By  JOHN  DAVIDSON,  M  A.,  D  Phil.  (Edin.),  Professor  of 
Political  Economy  in  the  University  of  New  Bruns- 
wick. i2 mo,  $1.50. 

_  A  Critical  Development  from  the  Historic  Theories,  together  with  an  examin- 
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the  Methods  of  ludustrial  Remuneration. 

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economics  as  the  most  important  contribution  to  the  science  of  Political  Economy 
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Sociology, 

A  Treatise.  By  JOHN  BASCOM,  author  of  "Esthetics," 
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A  General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post. 

A  Practical  Solution  of  the  Railroad  Problem.  By 
JAMES  L.  COWLES.  Third  revised  edition,  with  ad- 
ditional material.  12°,  cloth,  $1.25  ;  paper,  5octs. 

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Political  and  Social  Science. 

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the  transportation  question."  —  From  letter  of  EDW.  A.  MOSELEY,  Secretary  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  Washington,  D.C. 


Q.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS.  New  York  &  London. 


SOUND  MONEY. 

THE  SILVER  SITUATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.    By 
F,   W.   TAUSSIG,   LL.B.,   Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in 
Harvard  University;  author  of  "The  Tariff  History  of  the  United 
States. "     (No.  74  in  the  Questions  of  the  Day  Series.)     Second  Edition. 
Revised  and  enlarged.     8vo,  cloth         .....$     75 
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as  by  the  ignorant,  while  the  times  should  insure  it  the  widest  circulation." — New  York 
Evening  Post, 

CORPORATION  FINANCE.  By  THOMAS  L.  GREENE,  Auditor  of 
the  Manhattan  Trust  Co.  A  Study  of  the  Principles  and  Methods  of 
the  Management  of  the  Finances  of  Corporations  in  the  United  States, 
with  special  reference  to  the  valuation  of  corporation  securities.  8vo, 

$i  25 

"  The  author's  practical  and  theoretical  knowledge  has  enabled  him  to  prepare  an  in- 
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way.  We  imagine  few  competent  critics  will  take  issue  with  him  on  any  material  points 
in  his  discussions." — The  P'inancial  Chronicle. 

REAL  BI-METALLISM  ;  or,  True  Coin  versus  False  Coin.  A  Les- 
son  for  "  Coin's  Financial  School."  By  EVERETT  P.  WHEELER,  author 
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pact chapters  he  lays  bare  '  Coin's'  sophistries  and  misstatements,  and  effectually  demon- 
strates the  folly  and  danger  of  independent  free  silver  coinage  at  the  present  ratio." — 
Commercial  Advertiser^  New  York. 

A  HISTORY  OF  MODERN  BANKS  OF  ISSUE.  With  an  Ac- 
count  of  the  Economic  Crises  of  the  Present  Century.  By  CHARLES  A. 
CONANT.  8vo $3  oo 

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tremely interesting.  It  cannot  but  be  useful,  and  to  us  it  is  very  cheering.  Mr.  Conant's 
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taitn  in  the  progress  of  the  people  of  our  country  in  industry  and  commerce  and  that 
sound  currency  will  therefrom  be  evolved."—^.  Y.  Times. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  CURRENCY  (1252  to  1894).  Being  an  Ac- 
count of  the  Gold  and  Silver  Monies  and  Monetary  Standard  of  Europe 
and  America  together  with  an  Examination  of  the  Effects  of  Currency 
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Well-Being.  By  W.  A.,  SHAW  M.  A.  Svo  .  .  .  net  $3  75 

11  The  present  bimetallic  controversy  has  given  birth  to  nothing  more  profound  and 
convincing.  .  .  .  Mr.  Shaw's  work  possesses  a  permanent  historical  interest  far  trans- 
cending the  present  battle  of  the  standards."—^.  Y.  Nation. 


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QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY. 


AUTHOR  INDEX  TO  THE 
"QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY"  SERIES. 

Alexander,  E.   P.,  No.   36  Jacov    ,M..   P.,   No.   80 

Atkinson,  E.,  No.  40  Jr      /  W.   H.,  No.   39 

Bagehot,  W.,  No.   28  C.,  No.  75 

Baker,  C.  W.,  No.  59  ,  G.  W.,  No.   25 

Blair,  L.  H.,  No.   35  J.  S.,  No.   36 

Sourne,  E.   G.,   No.   24  L.  J.,  No.   66 

Codman,  J.,  No.  64  ,  D.  S.,  No.   77 

Cowles,  J.   L.,  No.   89  J.  E.  T.,   No.   23 

Crookes,  W.,  No.   r  of,  J.,  Nos.  9,  30,  73,  86 

Dugdale,  R.  L.,  in,  Thos.  G.,  No.   71 

Ehrich,  L.  R  an,  Hon.  P.,  No.  65 

Elliott,   J.   '  .ver,  E.  J.,  No.  63 

Foot  •  stokes,  A.   P.,  No.   79 

Fr                     f~/ 'O  &  I  Storey,  M.,  No.   58 

93     Swan,  C.   H.,  No.   91 

Taussig,  F.  W.,   Nos.   47,   74 

\ r-rrrrr-95  Tourgee,  A.  W.,   Nor  88 

Hall,   B.,  No.   71  Tyler,   L.  G.,  No.   68 

H'endrick,   F.,  No.   96  Wells,  D.  A.,  Nos.  54,  64,  71 

Hitchcock,  H.,   No.   37  Wheeler,   E.   P.,  No.   84 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  PUBLISHERS, 

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